Falling in the Black
by jessidamon
Summary: Giving into her feeling was something Raylee Matthews was trained not to do, she was told feeling cloud your judgment but a certain agent held her heart. Hawkeye did the unthinkable to Raylee before he realized how much he cared for her. Raylee was then pushed to move on. What was broken didn't mend, giving someone else the chance. Two lost souls find each other in the black.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** This story is a revamp from a story I already had on here and decided to change it. If you read the other story you will see that the first six chapters are almost the same with just a few minor changes after that the story changes very much and becomes the new story. I also changed my OC's name in this one. This story starts with the Avengers movie to set the story up then moves into the Winter Soldier going AU with the end of that movie. I hope you enjoy this story... please feel free to let me know your thoughts about the story through either a private message or a review... I will also try to update once a week. (Mondays)

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Marvel characters. I own my OC and any other characters I make along the way.**

Raylee Matthews has been an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. for five years now, she wasn't any special super hero like the Avengers but she was a trained spy. She was trained by Agent Natasha Romanoff and Agent Clint Barton and they formed a very close relationship between the three of them. The last few months had been a bit chaotic around SHIELD everyone had been disbursed on separate missions. Natasha was in the middle of a spy mission in Russia and Clint was guarding the tesseract in one of the other compounds. Raylee on the other hand was stuck on the carrier because while on her last mission she was instructed to get the Intel they needed and get out but her mark figured her out before completing her mission causing Natasha and Clint to have to swoop in and help her out. Director Nick Fury was extremely mad at her because he had to pull them from their own missions to do it and he was now in his own way punishing her for that.

Raylee and Clint felt like they had feelings for each other but neither would let it go any further then a friendship because he didn't want to complicate what they had as partners. There had been a few close encounters between the two but they always backed away before taking it too far. The tough part was the two of them got into an argument right before he left to New Mexico about her being mad at Fury for sidelining her, Raylee hated fighting with him but he was the one there in the moment of her rage.

"Agent Matthews, Director Fury wants you on the bridge." Agent Maria Hill said from behind Raylee as she was walking down the hall to the gym.

Raylee turned to face Hill who was standing in the middle of the hall. "Did he say what he needed?" she asked and Hill shook her head no.

"All he said was to find you and tell you not to keep him waiting." Hill said and Raylee nodded her head.

Raylee walked quickly to the bridge not wanting to keep Fury waiting any longer then he had to considering she was already on his bad side at the moment. It has been three months since their return from Ireland but she knew he wouldn't let up on her. When she walked in he was in the middle of barking orders at everyone around him so Raylee stood there quietly waiting for him to address her. Fury finally turned to face her and the look on his face wasn't pleasant at all.

"Director you needed to see me?" Raylee asked him.

"I tired multiple times to contact you on your ear com." He snapped at her and Raylee cringed when she realized it was left in her room. "The point of the ear com is so I can communicate with my agents when I need them, I shouldn't have to send other agents to look for them."

"Sorry I was on my way to the gym and forgot to pick it up when I left my room." Raylee said hoping he wouldn't think she was being negligent on the job again.

"Don't let it happen again, myself and a few agents need to go down into the field." He said turning away from her and looked at one of the computer screens. "We are having some issues with the tesseract."

"I can be ready in five." Raylee said as she started to turn away but Fury stopped her when he spoke.

"You're not coming with me, I need you here." he said and she quickly turned to face him with a shocked look.

Fury had never made her stay behind when it was a huge concern and the tesseract was considered a huge concern. "If this is because of what happen in Ireland…" Raylee began to say but was cut off before she could finish.

"Are you questioning my orders Agent Matthews?" Fury growled at her.

"No sir." Raylee said back to him as she tried to contain her anger. "What would you like me to do?"

Fury smirked at her causing her blood to boil even more. "I just need you to be on alert and keep your eye on the bridge because Agent Hill is accompanying me."

"Yes sir." Raylee said as she turned and walked away. Once out of sight from Fury she punched the wall out of anger.

"That's not going to help." Hill said from behind Raylee and she quickly spun around to face her. "Just give him some time and he will get over that whole Ireland thing."

"You knew he was going to make me stay behind." Raylee snapped at her.

"Raylee it wasn't my place to tell you." Hill said defensively to her. "I tried to reason with him but he wasn't budging on his decision."

"This is bullshit, I have been an agent here for five years and haven't made a mistake like this since my first mission." Raylee snapped; she knew it wasn't Hill's fault but she was having a hard time controlling her anger.

"It was supposed to be a one month mission that turned into three months and then you were falling for the mark, you didn't do that on your first mission!" Hill snapped at her. "You gave the guy all he needed to figure out you were undercover and he almost killed you."

"I wasn't falling for him." Raylee snapped at her.

"Agent Barton told Director Fury how you hesitated on killing him, if you weren't falling for him then why the hesitation?"

"That wasn't Barton's business, no one chastised Barton when he made the call not to kill Natasha but I'm being sent through the wringer because I had a moment of hesitation on a kill." Raylee snapped at Hill. "I heard the stories about his call with her."

"That was different Raylee and you know it, Patrick would have killed you if Clint didn't show up when he did. Natasha didn't try to kill Clint when he made that call."

"I pulled the damn trigger and killed him." Raylee snapped at her. "He's dead isn't he?"

"You only pulled the trigger because he had Clint pinned down." she snapped back at her and Raylee sucked in a deep breath at the memory of seeing Clint fighting against Patrick, the knife had been so close to plunging into Clint's heart. "I'm ready to go." Hill said looking over Raylee's shoulder.

Raylee glanced over her shoulder and saw Fury standing behind her. Fury knew he was being hard on Raylee for the whole Ireland situation but he had to make sure she knew that kind of behavior was not tolerated when the lives of his agents depended on her. "If you ladies are done with the trip down memory lane we need to leave." He said sarcastically to them. "Agent Matthews I need you to be on high alert." He said turning away and Hill followed behind him quickly.

Raylee was well aware of the mistake she made in Ireland and even though she denies it every time the subject comes up, she was falling for Patrick not realizing he had been playing her the whole time. Patrick knew from the start she was spying on him for SHIELD and used that against her. The night Patrick died there were two shots that hit him at the same time, one to the head and the other hit him in the neck. Both Natasha and Raylee were the ones to fire and didn't know whose bullet was the kill shot. Natasha's reports had said other wise and she had kept that between the two of them. Clint has had his suspicion about it and questioned Natasha but she stuck to the story she put on her report.

It had been a couple of hours since Fury and Hill left to go meet up with Agent Phil Coulson and Barton. She hadn't heard a word from them and it was beginning to aggravate her not knowing what was going on. The helicarrier sat idle in the ocean waiting for word on the next move they were to make. Raylee sat at the desk with her feet up looking at different monitors waiting for some kind of word then all of a sudden alarms started going off and she quickly dropped her feet to the floor looking closely at the monitor in front of her. The agent next to her was typing away at the keyboard trying to get a clear picture of what was happening in New Mexico.

When her phone rang she pulled it out and quickly answered the call. "We are at a level seven, Agent Barton has been compromised and the tesseract is with hostiles." Coulson said before she could even say hello. He was hoping she really didn't catch the part about Barton.

"What the hell do you mean Clint has been compromised?" Raylee snapped as she stood up on her feet and ran her free hand through her hair. "Where is he?"

"I don't know where he is right now and I'll explain more when I get back to the helicarrier, I'm only about ten minutes out." Coulson said then he hung up before she could respond to him.

Raylee paced back and forth through the bridge waiting on Coulson to get there, when he finally arrived he saw a panicked Raylee. He knew she was close with Barton and hated that Fury left it up to him to tell her what happened. Reaching the end of her path Raylee closed her eyes and rolled her neck in an attempt to relieve the tension she felt. When she turned to go back the way she had come from Coulson was standing in her path looking poised and calm while she felt stressed.

"What happened to Clint?" she asked him before he could open his mouth.

"I needed to call Agent Romanoff then I will explain." Coulson said as he walked around her making his call. "Ray we will figure this out." he said to her over his shoulder.

Raylee stood close by listening in on the call hoping to get more information but just as he had with her he had kept the call brief on what he had said to Natasha. When Phil finally told Raylee what happen she was more worried knowing that with Clint's knowledge and skills being used against them was going to be hard and Loki's mind control over him scared her. Fury was out getting Steve Rogers and Natasha was sent to get Dr. Bruce Banner. Coulson asked Raylee to accompany him to Stark Tower and she knew it was out of pity because Fury was still being a dick with her.

Tony Stark was trying to avoid talking with Coulson until Phil decided to just override Jarvis and put his call right through to Stark as they rode up the elevator. Raylee listened to the banter between the two until the elevator doors opened and they stepped into the room with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Raylee knew who Tony and Pepper were through the files that she had read on Iron Man and some of the stories Natasha told her.

"Security breach!" Tony said sarcastically to Pepper. "That's on you." he said pointing at her.

"Mr. Stark." Coulson said nodding at him.

"Phil come in." Pepper said smiling at Coulson.

"Phil? Uh… his first name is Agent." Tony said shaking his head.

"Come on in, we were celebrating." Pepper said as she moved closer to them and stuck her hand out to Raylee. "I'm Pepper Potts."

"Pepper this is Agent Matthews." Coulson said as Raylee shook her hand.

"I told you their first name is Agent." Tony said walking a little closer to them. "Agent Matthews you may stay and celebrate with us but Coulson is leaving."

"We need you to look this over." Phil said as Raylee tried to hand him the file she was carrying. "Soon as possible."

"I don't like being handed things." Tony said shaking his head at Raylee.

"That's alright because I loved being handed things." Pepper said taking the file from Raylee's hand as she handed her a champagne glass. "So let's trade." She handed the file over to Tony and took the champagne glass Tony had in his hand. "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday." Tony said glancing down at the file.

"This isn't a consultation." Raylee said to him and he looked over at her with a smirk.

"So Agent Matthews can talk, almost thought you were a mute." He said smiling at her.

"Is this about the Avengers? Which I… I know nothing about." Pepper said as she took a drink from her glass.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought and I didn't even qualify." Tony said shaking his head.

"I didn't know that either." Pepper said again.

"Did you qualify Agent Matthews?" Tony asked looking over at Raylee and she just shrugged her shoulders not knowing the real answer to that herself. "Yeah, join the club with me apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed and don't play well with others."

"That I did know." Pepper said and Tony shot a glare in her direction which she just smiled off.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Phil said as Tony walked away.

"Whatever. Miss Potts, you got a minute?" Tony said to Pepper and she walked over to the desk he was standing by.

The two of them spoke in a hush tone as Raylee and Phil watched them, Tony expanded his arms and different profiles appeared in holographic form floating in front of Pepper and Tony. They both looked on in awe of what was in front of them then Pepper, shook her head. "I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight." She said to him.

"Tomorrow." Tony said as he tried to pull Pepper closer to him.

"You've got homework… you got a lot of homework." Pepper said looking over at the images again.

"Well if I didn't?" Tony asked her.

"If you didn't?" Pepper asked him and he gave her a slight nod with a low yeah. "You mean if you finish?" she said and Tony nodded his head at her. "Well… um… then…" she whispered the rest in his ear and the two agents watching quickly turned away when they heard Tony gasp.

"Do you think we should maybe go out and give them some privacy?" Raylee asked Coulson in a low voice as Tony said something to Pepper and Phil just shrugged his shoulders.

"Work hard." Pepper said as she walked up to the two agents. "Would you two like to accompany me down the elevator and can you give me a lift to the airport?"

The two agents nodded at her as they followed her to the elevator leaving Tony there staring at the images in front of him. Phil and Pepper held small talk on their way down and Raylee stood there quietly listening to them. Once they were back to the helicarrier Fury sent Coulson to go pick up Captain Rogers. Raylee stood there looking at the images of Clint that were playing on the screen when Fury walked up behind her.

"Agent Matthews."

"Director, do you think whatever Loki did to Agent Barton is permanent?" she asked as she took one last look at his picture then turned to Fury.

"Let's hope not, he is a good agent and I really hate to lose him to this." Fury said hearing the concern in her voice. "Don't let your feelings for Agent Barton cloud your judgment, we have a job to do." Fury then walked away from her leaving her standing there with a shocked look on her face as he stood in the center of the bridge looking at his screens. Everyone was going about their work to get the helicarrier in the air again. Raylee stood off to the side watching the team work and once things were a little more settled and they were climbing altitude Captain Rogers and Dr. Banner walked in. "Gentlemen." Fury said to them as Steve handed him money.

As they spoke to each other Raylee watched as Natasha walked to the same screen she was just at and looked at the images of Clint that were playing on it. Then Natasha tuned back to the conversation everyone was having when Phil was done talking. "That's still not going to find them in time." She said.

"You have to narrow the field, how many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked as he glanced over at Raylee noticing she seemed upset and had been quiet through the whole conversation.

"How many are there?" Fury asked getting Bruce's attention back on him.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition." Bruce said glancing again at Raylee. "At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." Fury said as he walked over to Raylee and Natasha nodded at him. "Agent Matthews, can you please show Captain Rogers to his room so he could get settled in?" Raylee nodded as she walked over to Steve.

"Hello Captain, I'll show where you can get settled at." Raylee said as she stuck her hand out to Steve.

"Ma'am." he said as he shook hands with her then followed her out.

Natasha left with Bruce to the lab. "You're gonna love it, doc. We got all the toys." Natasha said to Bruce as he followed her down the hall.

"The other agent in there with us looked upset, is everything alright with her?" Bruce asked Natasha catching her a little off guard with the question. "I don't mean to pry."

"Agent Matthews and I are good friends with Agent Barton and he has been compromised."

"Oh… I see." Bruce said in a low voice. "I hope things turn out good for your friend."

"So do I." Natasha said as she showed Bruce into the lab and then went looking for Raylee. Natasha found Raylee walking towards her room. "Raylee, how are you holding up?"

"I'm good." Raylee said trying to sound like things were ok. "Nat I'm just worried about Clint."

"We all are but you're showing way too much emotion in front of people." Natasha said as she got closer to Raylee and nudged her into her room. "Ray he is going to be fine."

"You don't know that, if Fury had let me go with him to New Mexico…" Raylee started to say but Natasha cut her off.

"Things could be a lot worse than it already is, Loki could have compromised the both of you or could have killed one of you."

"I know you're right. It just sucks not being able to do anything or even know where he is."

"Believe me I know how you feel." Natasha said laying her hand on Raylee's shoulder. "Let's go back to the bridge and see if there were any hits yet, remember what Clint taught you about checking your emotions."

Just as they were walking into the bridge Steve was walking out. "Ladies we got a hit, I need the two of you to fly Captain Rogers to this location." Fury said to them as he showed them the location on the screen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or it's characters, I own my OC and other that I create.**

The three of them were quickly on their way to Germany, once there things became chaotic quickly. By the time Steve was dropped out of the quinjet they could plainly see a man standing over the crowd that was kneeling before him. Raylee realized that it was Loki standing there and she tried her hardest to look around for any sign of Clint being there also. Natasha's voice brought her attention back to Loki.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Natasha said into the PA system.

Loki smirked at them and shot a blue blast out of his scepter towards the quinjet but Natasha and Raylee were quick to maneuver it out of the way. The two of them stood there watching as Steve and Loki fought. "Nat can you get a clean shot on him?" Raylee asked as she still scanned the area for any sign of Clint again.

"The guy is all over the place." Natasha said sounding mad.

Then suddenly AC/DC started playing on the quinjet's speaker system and Raylee looked over at Natasha when she heard her groan loudly. "Agent Romanoff did you miss me?" Tony's voice could be heard and it hit Raylee why Natasha had groaned.

"Is he always that arrogant?" Raylee asked her and Natasha smirked.

"Yes he is." Natasha said as they watched Loki quickly surrender to Iron Man.

Once Loki was loaded into the jet they began to make their way back to the helicarrier. Natasha and Raylee were a little weary of the storm that seem to have come out nowhere. "Has he said anything?" they heard Fury ask over the headsets.

"Not a word." Natasha answered him.

"Just get him here we are low on time." Fury said.

"I don't like it." Steve said to Tony.

"What, rock of ages giving up so easily?" Tony said sarcastically.

"I don't remember it ever being that easy, this guy packs a wallop." Steve said glancing over at Loki.

"You're still spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing, pilates?" Tony asked and everyone could see the confusion on Steve's face.

Raylee and Natasha both were trying to ignore Tony's jabs at Steve as they were trying to pay close attention to the sky that was getting very violent on them. "Where is this coming from?" Natasha said as she was trying to keep the quinjet leveled then a flash of lightning lit it up.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" Steve asked turning to look at Loki now.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Loki said sounding truly worried.

There was a loud crash of thunder then something landed on the roof of the quinjet. "What the hell was that?" Raylee asked looking back at the guys behind them.

When Tony opened the back hatch someone jumped in and was kneeling on the ramp then he quickly stood up. He knocked Tony back and walked over to Loki snatching him from his seat by the throat and jumped out of the jet with him. Steve and Tony stood there in shock for a moment.

"Now there's that guy." Tony said sarcastically.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked as she glanced over her shoulder at them.

"Think the guy is friendly?" Steve asked.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the tesseract is lost." Tony said walking to the back of the jet and was about to jump out.

"Stark we need a plan of attack!" Steve snapped at him.

"I have a plan. ATTACK!" Tony said jumping out.

Steve quickly grabbed a parachute to follow behind him. "I'd sit this one out, Cap." Natasha said as she glanced back at him.

"This is one you don't want to get involve with." Raylee said agreeing with Natasha.

"I don't see how I can." Steve said shaking his head at them.

"These guys come from legends, they're basically Gods." Natasha said hoping to convince him.

"There's only one God, Ma'am and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." Steve said then he jumped out of the jet.

"I guess he wants to find that out himself." Raylee said to Natasha as they both shook their heads.

Once things were settled between the egos of the men the whole group were on their way back to the helicarrier. Raylee was now worried like Steve had been on how too easy this was, something was not right and she couldn't figure out what it was. After watching the armed SHIELD agents escort Loki to the cage Raylee went to her room. The last couple of days have seemed to be getting to her now, her nerves were at their end and all she wanted was to know that Clint was alive and ok. Seeing as she wasn't a part of the Avengers or been asked to be, Raylee chose not to go to the briefing room with the rest of them. It might have been a scrapped project but that didn't mean they weren't all well aware of the fact that it was needed right now. Raylee laid back in her bed closing her eyes remembering the last conversation she had with Clint just before he left as she fell asleep.

" _I don't understand why Fury keeps punishing me." Raylee growled as she slammed her dresser draw closed. "You and Natasha are both leaving for missions and I'm stuck here, this isn't fair."_

" _You screwed up big in Ireland." Clint said looking at her as he leaned against the door opening._

" _I know I screwed up, you don't have to keep reminding me." Raylee snapped at him. "We all made it out alive and I got everything that was asked of me."_

" _Raylee, Patrick was about to stab me in the damn heart and you hesitated on shooting him." Clint snapped at her as he pushed himself off the door and moved further into the room, he was mad she acted like it was no big deal. "I told you to never fall for a mark, it complicates things more than it should be."_

" _I wasn't falling for him and if I was that is not your damn business. My personal life is none of your concern." Raylee yelled at him. "What I do outside of SHIELD is on me not you!"_

" _You weren't outside of SHIELD! You were undercover and you fucked up!" he yelled at her. "Why the hell did you cry when the bastard died if you weren't falling for him?"_

" _I thought he was different, I thought he could change." She said to Clint and he shook his head at her. "I was trying to help him."_

" _He didn't want your help he wanted to kill you and would have if I didn't show up there." Clint yelled at her. "When you let your emotions cloud your judgment things go bad and you let that happen, we taught you better than that… I taught you better than that!"_

" _I don't need you chastising me also." Raylee snapped at him. "You have a damn mission to get to so just fucking leave. I don't want to be anywhere near you!"_

" _Fuck you then!" he growled at her. "I was trying to help you."_

" _I don't want or need your help!" she yelled at his retreating back and he left without responding back to her._

Raylee didn't want that to be the last conversation she had with Clint, she wanted to apologize for being such a bitch to him. She shot up in her bed and glanced around seeing she was alone again. After sitting there breathing deeply for a while and not being able to take the silence of her room anymore Raylee climbed out of the bed and just roamed around the halls avoiding the bridge and labs the whole time. Just as she was about to turn one of the corners she heard Loki's voice.

"There is not many people who can sneak up on me." Loki said.

"But you figured I would come." Raylee heard Natasha say.

"After… after whatever torturers Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend. A balm and I would cooperate." Loki said in a very calm voice to Natasha.

"I want to know what you have done to Agent Barton." Natasha said to him and the worry was clearly heard in her voice.

"I'd say I expanded his mind." Loki said in an almost cheerful but evil voice.

"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?" Natasha asked.

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki said to her, Raylee felt her chest tighten at his words. She wanted to walk away and not hear any more of the conversation but she couldn't get her legs to move.

"Love is for children, I owe him a debt." Natasha said in a calm voice.

"Tell me." Loki said in an equally calm voice.

"Before I worked for SHIELD I uh… well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset." She said to him. "I didn't care who I used it for or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out." Natasha said in a very calm voice but because Raylee has worked with her for so long already she was able to hear the anger in it.

Loki's laughter to Natasha's response had Raylee's blood boiling. "Ah… no but I like this, your world in the balance and you bargain for one man." Loki said in an evil voice.

"Regimes fall every day, I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian… or I was."

"What is it you want?" Loki asked her.

"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I like to wipe it out."

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov's daughter, Sao Pablo, the hospital fire? Barton told me everything, I'm actually surprised Agent Matthews isn't standing here with us… Oh dear Patrick what must he think wait she killed him. She is such a disappointment to Clint, all his wasted energy on her."

"Leave her out of this Loki." Natasha snapped at him.

"You're ledger is dripping, it's gushing red and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?" Loki snapped at her. "This is the basest sentimentality, this is a child's prayer… PATHETIC!" he yelled at her. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code… something that makes up for the horrors but they are a part of you, and they will never go away!" Loki hit the cell very hard causing Natasha to flinch and even Raylee jumped at the sound she heard. "I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately in every way he knows you fear! And when he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

"You're a monster!" Natasha said and Raylee could hear the fakeness in her voice.

Loki let out a wicked laugh. "No you brought the monster."

"So…Banner… that's your play." Natasha said being back to her calm poised self.

"What?" Loki said in a very shocked voice.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." Natasha said into her ear piece just as she looked up at Loki one last time. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Raylee heard Natasha leaving the room so she quickly hid behind the corner so Natasha wouldn't see that she had heard the whole thing. Once she knew it was safe Raylee came back around the corner and looked at the door Natasha just ran out of, sucking in a deep breath Raylee opened the door and walked right in to see Loki still standing there with a dumb found look on his face.

"Agent Matthews have you also come to bargain for Barton's life, if so I thought you should know his girlfriend has already tried and failed." Loki said to Raylee and smirked when he noticed her breath hitch and the mention of girlfriend. "Was that a pang of jealousy I just saw?"

"You are an evil no good monster!" Raylee growled at him.

"I have been told that." Loki said sarcastically. "You have really disappointed Barton, he told me all about Ireland and Patrick."

"Fuck you!" Raylee yelled at him.

"Now, now that's not proper language for a lady." Loki said shaking his head at her. "No wonder Barton likes Agent Romanoff better."

"I don't have to listen to this." Raylee said turning to walk away.

"No you don't my lady but you should." Loki said in a too sweet voice, Raylee stopped walking but didn't turn back to face him. "I personally would have chosen you to stand by my side not her."

"I'm not in the mood for you damn mind games." Raylee said in an equally sweet voice.

"You might not be but my lady it would be much safer for you in here." Loki said but she ignored him. "I wouldn't go out there." He said quietly with a smirk as she left him.

Just as she walked out of the room and back into the hall there was a loud explosion causing her to fall into one of the walls. All of sudden there was a lot of cluttered talking going on in her ear com. Raylee quickly climbed to her feet and started running towards the bridge so she could see what was going on. She had to get there and help out with anything she could do, Raylee headed out of the detention area and decided to cut through the equipment room to get there quicker. Raylee came to a sudden stop when she came face to face with Clint just as she heard Fury's voice calling out Clint location over the ear com.

"Clint what's going on with you?" Raylee said in a very soft voice as she took a step back, she needed to try and keep space between the two of them. "You have to fight this."

Clint pulled an arrow out then raised his bow and aimed it at her. "Don't move Agent Matthews."

"Clint this isn't you please don't do this." Raylee said just as Barton pulled back and was ready to fire the arrow.

Raylee knew she had no choice but to engage Clint in hopes of him realizing it was her. She ran at him at full speed then tried to drop to the floor as the arrow was released from his bow, her move was not quick enough and the arrow cut across her cheek as the tip slid by. Raylee felt the sting of the cut and blood start to slide down her cheek as she slid into Barton legs causing him to drop his bow and he fell to the ground next to her. Raylee tried to scramble to her feet to get away from him but he caught her ankle and yanked her back down. Raylee swung her other leg at him trying to kick his head but he caught it before it could make any contact with him. He yanked hard on both of her legs causing her to fall back hitting her head hard on the cat walk.

"Clint please don't do this." Raylee pleaded with him as she held her head and her eye sight began to see black dots as it blurred on her. "We are partners you have to fight this, we need you."

"You don't need my help, isn't that what you said to me." Barton growled at her as he pinned both of her legs under his knee then pulled out a knife. "You can't even do your job right! I'm a threat and you plead with me rather than do what you are trained to do. You don't deserve to be an agent, you're pathetic and weak!"

"Get off me now Barton!" Raylee snapped at him as she lifted her torso up towards him to knock him off of her but that was her mistake. Raylee's eyes went wide when she felt the knife he had pushed deep into her side. "Clint!" she said with a groan as tears quickly slid down her face.

"Clint what did you do?" Natasha screamed at him as she came running towards them.

Clint let Raylee fall back to the ground as he stood up with the bloody knife still in his hand. Natasha didn't give him a chance to answer her she instantly ran at him, the two of them battled it out with each other. Natasha didn't want to kill Clint but she was extremely mad after what he done to Raylee. When she could she would glance back at Raylee to make sure she was still breathing. Raylee watched them fight each other as she tried to put pressure on the wound to keep it from bleeding. Clint was trying to slash Natasha with the knife until she had no choice but to bite his wrist causing him to drop it. Natasha wrapped her legs around Clint's neck flipping him over and put his arm in a lock while she hit his head off one of the rails. Clint went down hard and when he looked back up at her he almost looked like he had come to his senses.

"Natasha." He breathed out in a low voice but she just stepped forward and knocked him out cold.

"Raylee!" Natasha said as she dropped to her knees next to her. "Ray you gotta stay with me here." Natasha said as she put pressure on the stab wound and Raylee groaned from the pain it caused.

"Clint? Is Clint ok?" Raylee asked through gritted teeth.

"Don't worry about Clint you just stay with me." Natasha snapped at her. "Agent Matthews is down in the equipment room." she said into her communicator.

Raylee looked behind Natasha and saw that Clint laying completely still on the ground. "Agent Coulson is down." Fury said into the communicator.

"We have paramedics on the way to both locations." Another agent said.

"They're here… and they called it, send them to Agent Matthews." Fury said and you could hear the anger and sadness in his voice. "Agent Matthews needs to be top priority, Agent Romanoff is she still breathing?"

"Yes I'm still breathing." Raylee said in a low groan.

"You stay with us you hear me Agent Matthews." Fury snapped into the communicator and she just grunted as a response.

The paramedics were franticly trying to stop the bleeding when Raylee finally loss conciseness. They quickly pulled her on a gurney and ran off to the infirmary, she needed to be rushed into surgery if they were going to have any chance in saving her life. Natasha stood there watching as some of the SHIELD agents pulled Clint off the floor and dragged him off to another room in the infirmary where they strapped him down to the bed. Everything that has happened so far this day was slowly staring to hit Natasha, one of her best friends was in surgery with a stab wound from the other best friend that was completely screwed in the head when he did it and another one of her good friends was now dead and all this was at the hands of Loki. Natasha felt the urge to avenge her friends and give them the justice they both deserved.

 **AN: Thank you to the ones that have set this for a follow... I am happy to know there are some out there that likes how this has started and are giving it a chance. I hope you continue to enjoy it, as I have enjoyed writing this.**

 **I want to let anyone curious to know I got the title for this story for a song... Falling inside the black sung by Skillet. The song and a video fan video I saw youtube inspired what this story has become. It is my go to song when I write so 90% of the time that is what I listen to as I write this.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or it's characters, I own my OC and others that I create.**

Natasha sat next to Clint's bed watching over him as he tried to shake off Loki's mind control. It was hard for her to sit there watching him struggle and not be able to help him. She stood there because she had to keep her mind busy so she wouldn't go crazy worrying about Raylee, who was still in surgery.

"Clint you're going to be alright." Natasha said to him softly.

"You know that? Is that what you know? I got… I gotta go in though." Clint said looking over at her. "I gotta flush him out."

"We don't have that long, it's gonna take time." Natasha said as she stood up and walked over to the table and poured a glass of water.

"I don't understand, have you ever had someone take your brain and play?" he asked looking over at her. "Pull you out and send something else in, do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

"You know that I do." Natasha said to him in a soft voice.

"Why am I back, how did you get him out?" Clint asked as he looked down at the restraints on his wrist.

"Cognitive recalibration… I hit you really hard in the head." She said smirking at him.

"Thanks." He said as he watched Natasha remove the restraints. "Tasha, how many agents?"

"Don't… don't do that to yourself Clint, this was Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for." Natasha said as she sat back, she wasn't sure if he remembered what he had done to Raylee and she didn't want to bring it up in case he didn't, he was struggling enough already and that would make things much worse.

"Loki, he got away?" Clint asked as he glanced over at Natasha. He wanted to ask where Raylee was but the last time the two of them talked it was a fight and he thought she was still mad at him because she wasn't sitting there with Natasha.

"Yeah, I don't suppose you know where?"

"I didn't need to know, I didn't ask. He's going to make his play soon though." Clint said looking over at her again. "My memory is sketchy right now but I know it's today." Clint said reaching for the glass of water Natasha had poured.

"We gotta stop him." Natasha said getting to her feet and walked towards the door to look out the window.

Clint watched her closely; he knew there was something wrong with her. "Yeah? Who's we?" Clint asked looking at her and Natasha turned back to face him.

"I don't know… whoever is left." Natasha said sounding upset.

"Well if I put an arrow in Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better I suppose." Clint said trying to soften the mood.

"Now you sound like you." Natasha said smiling at him as she sat down next to him.

"But you don't. You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?" Clint asked as he turned his body slightly to look at her.

"He didn't… I just…" Natasha said looking down at her hands, she couldn't figure out how to tell her best friend that he had almost killed their partner, their friend.

"Natasha." Clint said in a low voice to her, he needed her to talk to him.

"I've been compromised; I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out." Natasha said going against her better judgment and kept the stabbing to herself.

"I don't understand why my memory feels lost but yet I can remember some of the things that have happened." Clint said looking over at her. "I need to remember everything."

"Don't push yourself it will come back just give it some time." Natasha said hoping he would listen.

"I'm going to go clean myself up." Clint said getting up from the bed and walked into the bathroom.

As he looked in the mirror he felt like something was wrong, something was missing and it was pissing him off that he couldn't figure out what it was. He reached for the faucet and noticed he had dried blood on his hand, Clint stood there a few moments looking at it trying to figure out where it came from because he had no open wounds on his hands or anywhere else that he knew of. If the blood wasn't his he wanted to know who it belonged to. Natasha sat there looking at the bathroom door that Clint just walked in, it hurt to hide this from him and she knew he would be upset with her once he did find out.

Natasha was brought out of her thoughts by Steve coming into the room. "Time to go." He said as she took in the fact that once again he was in his full uniform.

"Go where?" Natasha asked as she stood up on her feet.

"I'll tell you on the way, can you fly one of those jet things?" Steve asked.

"I can." Clint said as he came out of the bathroom drying his hands on a towel and Steve was surprised to see him.

Steve quickly looked over at Natasha and she nodded her head at him letting him know Clint was alright. "Does he…" Steve never finished the question when he noticed Natasha quickly shake her head no and Steve knew right away that Clint had no idea about Agent Matthews yet. "You got a suit?" He asked looking back at Clint.

"Yeah." Clint said looking between the two of them trying to figure out what he just missed.

"Then suit up." Steve said as he walked away.

The now formed Avengers walked over to the quinjet together, Hawkeye and Black Widow walked on the sides as Captain America walked in the center. Once inside the quinjet a young pilot stood in their way trying to stop them. "You are not authorized to be here…" He said but was cut off by Steve.

"Son… Just don't." Steve said walking past him.

"Tasha where is Raylee?" Clint asked as he walked past the pilot that was leaving, she normally would co-pilot for him. "I haven't seen her."

"Agent Barton, Agent Matthews is still in the infirmary, she just came out…" the young pilot started to say only to be cut off again but this time by Natasha.

"I can handle this, get off the jet." Natasha growled at him and he quickly scurried away. "Clint don't worry about Raylee right now let's just get this over with first." She said knowing this was the worse time to tell him what happened to her.

"We need to get moving." Steve said from further in the jet when he heard what they were talking about. He agreed with the way Natasha felt, this wasn't the right time to say anything to Barton.

"Why is Ray in the infirmary?" Clint asked looking between Steve and Natasha.

"Agent Matthews was hurt during the attack but we can talk about this when we get back." Steve said seeing that Natasha was having a hard time with answering him.

Fury stood on the bridge of the helicarrier looking over everyone as they worked hard at trying to get things up and running again on the ship. Just as he was about to turn around and walk away he heard a loud screech and when he looked out the window he saw Iron Man flying off followed quickly by one of the quinjets.

"They found it, get our communications back up. Do whatever you have to do, I want eyes on everything." Fury barked out. "Agent Hill I also want an update on Agent Matthews."

"Yes sir." Hill said moving to tell a few of the agents what to do before leaving the bridge and personally going down to the infirmary to get and update on Raylee herself. "Doctor, Director Fury would like an update on Agent Matthews." She had asked him once she located the doctor.

"Agent Matthews has lost a lot of blood from the stab wound causing her to black out at the scene. We had to take her into surgery right away so we could repair all the damage the knife did to her organs, it was touch and go but she came out of surgery about an half hour ago." The doctor said looking at his watch then he wiped his hand across his forehead. "Agent Matthews also has a serious concussion, she must have taken a very hard blow to the head. The cut to her face which looks like it came from one of Agent Barton's arrows took about seven stitches. With her still not waking up we aren't sure if it's due to the loss of blood or the head injury."

"Thank you Doctor, please keep us updated on her condition." Hill said as she walked away to give Director Fury the information she just received. After speaking to Fury his mood had gotten a lot worse, he was truly hoping she would be awake and talking before the Avengers returned and now that didn't look like it would be happening. "Director, I did ask the doctor to keep me inform on her condition."

"Good, once you have some good news let me know." Fury said turning away and walked closer to the window. Closing his one good eye Fury stood there willing his fallen agent to wake up _. 'Raylee you need to wake your ass up, this is not good for this team or your partners. I made a promise and you can't make me break it.'_ He thought to himself before opening his eye again.

The fight in New York had finally ended and the Avengers closed down the portal successfully stopping Loki. But the damage to the city had been so much worse than any of them had wanted. The Avengers along with Loki had returned back to the helicarrier for their debriefing. Once everyone was done they were leaving the room to make arrangements to send Thor along with Loki back to Asgard with the tesseract. When the briefing room was almost cleared out Fury called for Clint and Natasha to stay behind.

"Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff can I have a word with the two of you?" Fury said and they both turned to him stopping from going any further. "Agent Matthews has slipped into a coma after her surgery. We are doing all we can for her."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Clint asked looking between his partner and the director with a confused look on his face. "What happened to Raylee?"

"Agent Romanoff you didn't tell him what happened?" Fury asked Natasha and she shook her head no.

"Tell me what?" Clint snapped looking at Natasha. "Natasha what are you hiding from me?"

"Clint when I came looking for you… I was too late." Natasha said shaking her head at him.

"Too late for what?" he snapped. "Don't give me any bullshit run around just say what you have to. What were you too late for?"

"Agent Barton, while you were under Loki's mind control there was a fight between you and Agent Matthews resulting…" Fury hesitated before finishing what he had no choice but to tell Clint. "Resulting in a fight between you two, in the end you stabbed her."

Clint looked down at his hands as he stumbled back a little bit, the dried blood he couldn't figure out where it came from on his hand earlier was hers. Clint closed his eyes and in that brief moment it all came rushing back to him the arrow that skimmed pass her face cutting her as she ran at him. The fighting between the two of them mostly on his end, him making her bang her head off the ground. The words he said to her then the knife he held tightly in his hand as he had plunged it deep into her side. Clint brought both his hands up to the back of his neck and held on tightly to it as he let out a loud scream of anger. At that moment Clint felt like he had just torn his own heart out and was trying his hardest to breathe through it all.

"Clint it's not your fault, it wasn't you." Natasha said as she tried to grab his arm but he yanked it away from her. "Clint it was all Loki… Loki did this."

"That's where you're wrong Natasha, it was me." Clint snapped at her as Steve and Tony came running in the room. "Why the hell didn't you tell me about this?"

"Sir is everything alright in here?" Steve asked as he glanced around the room looking for the trouble he thought was in here.

"Everything is alright Captain Rogers." Fury said to him as he moved closer to Barton. "Barton we need you to calm down."

"Everything is not alright." Clint growled between gritted teeth. "I tried to kill Raylee when I stabbed her… that is not alright."

"Oh… I take it you told Hawkeye about Agent Matthews." Tony said as he glanced between everyone there. "I'll take that as my time to leave, I'll be back when you are ready to send Thor and his adopted brother back to wherever they came from." Tony said backing out of the room with his hands up.

"I want Loki's blood." Clint snapped as he tried to exit the room but Steve and Fury stepped in his way before he could get out. "I deserve to do this, he deserves to die."

"My brother will pay for his crimes when we return to Asgard, this I swear to you." Thor said stepping up behind Fury and Steve. "I didn't get the pleasure of formally meeting Agent Matthews but from the stories I have heard since our return tells me she is a wonderful lady."

"Your brother is the reason I hurt her and he has to pay for that." Clint snapped at Thor.

"And he will… on Asgard." Thor said to him but it wasn't enough to calm Clint down.

"Agent Barton you must stay away from the prisoner." Fury commanded him in a stern voice.

"Fine!" Clint growled at him as he turned and walked the other way.

Clint slowly walked down to the infirmary to check on Raylee himself but once he got to the door he couldn't bring himself to go inside. He listened as the machines beeped slowly and watched as her chest rose then fell again. The bandage that covered her face must have been where his arrow cut it open. He wasn't quite sure how long he had been standing there watching her through the window as countless doctors and nurses had come and gone to check her vitals, always informing him there was no change when they would come back out of the room.

He heard someone walking up behind him and assumed it was another doctor coming to check on Raylee again. "Clint I have watched you on the security camera just standing here for the last three hours." Natasha said as she walked up next to him and peered into the room herself. "Go inside and talk to her… I have read somewhere that it sometimes that helps them try to pull through, maybe it will help if she heard your voice."

"And what should I say to her… hey I'm sorry for trying to kill… by the way I didn't mean it." He said sarcastically. "I don't think that would work as well as you think."

"It's a start." Natasha snapped at him and he shook his head as he walked away from her. "Clint after I knocked you out I went to her side and do you want to know what her first words to me were." Natasha snapped at him. "Clint, is Clint ok. Raylee was bleeding out but yet she was more worried about you." Natasha watched as he stopped for a moment dropping his head low then shook it before walking away again. She stood there for a few moments watching his retreating back before going into the room herself. Natasha walked over to Raylee's bed and sat down next to her on it. "Damn it Ray you need to wake up, we need you."

"I truly am sorry for what has happened to your friend." Natasha heard Thor say from behind her and she quickly wiped the tear from her face as she turned around. "I have come here to put an end to Loki's schemes and the price your people had to paid for his mistakes could never be repaid."

"Raylee will wake up I know it, it will just be when she's ready to. She is as stubborn as Agent Barton and I." Natasha said as she backed away from the bed. "If I were you I would keep an eye on Loki. They don't call Clint Hawkeye for no reason and he may try to go after him from a distance so no one could see him."

"I will keep that in mind." Thor said stepping to the side when Natasha went to exit the door. "You don't mind if I sit with Agent Matthews for a few moments. I would like to give her my apologies for what my brother has done."

"I don't mind at all, stay as long as you would like." Natasha said to him with a smile. "And you can call her Raylee she likes that better than Agent Matthews." Thor nodded at her as she walked away and he walked over to sit in the chair next to her bed.

Thor was amazed at how much this one agent meant to so many and how just by lying here in this bed she was slowly working her way into the hearts of Captain Rogers, Dr. Banner and even Tony Stark. He was able to see the pain in Agent Barton's face and could hear it in Agent Romanoff's voice. Thor stood there for a little bit longer than he had planned and just as he stood on his feet again he held her hand in his.

"I am sorry for what my brother has done, Agent Romanoff was correct when she said this was all Loki's fault and I truly hope you could forgive Agent Barton… for he had no control over what he had done to you."

It has been a little over a week since the attack on New York and Raylee still had not woken up. The Avengers were now standing in the middle of a blocked area they had set up for Thor to take Loki back to Asgard. Loki stood there handcuffed and muzzled as the rest of the Avengers said bye to Thor, once it was all done and over everyone slowly went their separate ways. Clint quickly signed on for another mission in Germany while Natasha went to Morocco to track a mark with Hill making a promise to contact her if there were any changes with Raylee.

Fury had just got done talking with the council when Hill approached him. "Sir, how does it work now? They've gone their separate ways, some extremely far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens then?" she asked him with a curious tone to her voice.

"They'll come back." Fury said sure of himself.

"Are you sure about that?" she asked.

"I am." He said in a matter of fact voice.

"Why?" Maria asked.

"Because we will need them to and once Agent Matthews wakes up the trio will reunite." Fury said walking away from her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or it's characters, I own my OC and others that I create.**

It has now been six months since the attack on New York and Raylee still hasn't woken up, the doctor figure out that the hit to her head was much worse than they initially had thought. Tony Stark being the only Avenger near her and having his own means of getting to the helicarrier has made it a point to check on Agent Matthews a few times a week. Fury didn't like him being around so much but he kept that to himself as much as he could considering he was the only one that came so often to visit her. Natasha came when she wasn't on a mission and Captain Rogers came whenever he had the chance. Tony was walking down the hall to Raylee's room when he crossed paths with Fury.

"Director." Tony said nodding his head at Fury. "No change in the pretty lady's status?"

"No I just left her room and I talked with the doctors they don't know how much longer they can keep her here like this." Fury said coming to a stop in front of Tony. "We are going to send her to another facility in a few days."

Tony shook his head in disbelief. "All the technology on this floating tin can and you want to ship her out to some unknown place."

"The helicarrier is still in need of repairs and the care will be better somewhere else." Fury said sternly to him.

"If it comes to that I will take her with me." Tony didn't bother standing there long enough for a response he continued his walk to her room and closed the door when he walked in. "I am getting tired of coming here, sitting with you and talking out of my ass… open your damn eyes and talk back to me already." Tony snapped as he sat down next to her bed and held onto her hand, this had become a routine for him. He was hoping she would get mad at him for talking to her like that. "I'm the one that always wants the attention and here you are stilling my thunder… no offense Thor." Tony said looking up at the ceiling as if Thor could hear him. "One of these days Raylee you will wake up and tell me to shut the hell up and to stop bitching at you… they want to send you somewhere else but I'm not letting that happen. I got an open room in my place you can have, I'm sure Pepper would be fine with it." When Tony closed his mouth to take a deep breath he felt her fingers move, he quickly stood up next to her. "Raylee can you hear me… squeeze my hand if you can." Tony said looking down at their hands but nothing happened, just as he was about give up she squeezed. Tony quickly hit the call button on the wall with his free hand.

"Can I help you with something Mr. Stark?" the tired voice asked through the speaker, they had come accustom to Tony bothering them.

"Send the doctor now, Agent Matthews has moved her hand." He snapped at the speaker then looked back down at Raylee's face, she was opening her eyes slowly. "Hey beautiful… wait you can't tell Pepper I said that to you ok." Tony said with a nervous laugh as she reached up to grab the tube that was down her throat and Tony quickly pushed her hand away. "Hey don't do that the doctor should be here soon to take that out." Tony said as the doctor ran in the room and he looked up at her. "What the hell took you so long?"

"I got here once I was told Agent Matthews moved her hand." The doctor said to Tony as she walked over to the other side of the bed and saw Raylee looking up at her with wide eyes as she went to reach for the tube again this time it was the doctor that stopped her. "I'm going to take that out for you in a moment. Mr. Stark, could you please step out into the hall while I check Agent Matthews?"

"Ok." Tony said as he went to release her hand but she held onto his hand tighter. Raylee was scared she didn't know who this doctor was and even though she barely knew Tony he was a familiar face. "I'm going to take the fact that she's not letting go of my hand as an invitation to stay." Tony said looking up at the doctor.

The doctor shook her head but went about her duties of assessing Raylee's vitals and removing the tube. Once Raylee was through the coughing phase the doctor asked her a question to see how her memory was. "Agent Matthews, do you know who I am?"

Tony let out a humorless laugh and the doctor looked over at him. "With all due respect doc how long have you been here on the floating tin can?" Tony asked her and the doctor glared at him. "It's just a simple question, no need to get mad at me."

"Five months, why would that matter?" she said to him sounding agitated, Tony had that effect on them because he was constantly questioning if they were doing everything right.

"My dear doctor you just asked someone that has been in a coma for six months if she knew who you are and you have only been here for five months." Tony said sarcastically to her as he turned back to face Raylee. "Sweetheart… ok that's another name you cannot tell Pepper I called you." Tony said smiling at her. "Do you know who I am?"

"Were you serious when you said I was in coma for six months?" Raylee asked looking between the two people standing by her, her voice came out very hoarse sounding.

"Not the answer I was looking for." He said smirking at her.

"You are Tony Stark or Iron Man whichever one you choose to go by right now." She said between coughs and Tony reached behind himself to grab a glass of water and handed it to her.

"Her memory is perfectly fine if she knows who I am and can be sarcastic about it." Tony said smirking at the doctor.

"Raylee it is nice to see you awake and among the living again." Fury said as he entered the room. "I see Stark has finally annoyed you enough to wake up, I know he has annoyed us."

"Not funny." Tony said as he sat down in the chair. "It was my charm that convinced her to open her eyes."

"Director she needs her rest." The doctor said to Fury and Tony let out a humorless laugh causing the doctor to glare at him again.

"Are you serious, she just slept for six straight months and you want her to rest more." Tony said shaking his head.

"Director what happened?" Raylee's raspy voice asked and all eyes turned back to her. "The Tesseract, Loki and Agent Barton?"

"All is well on earth again, thanks to the Avengers." Tony said to her with a smile.

"The tesseract and Loki has been taken back to Asgard by Thor… Agent Barton is back to his old self." Fury said glaring at Tony then turned back to her. "We haven't been able to make contact with Barton or Romanoff yet but I'm sure once we do they will make contact with you."

"Do you remember what happen to you?" Tony asked as he leaned forward in the chair.

"Yes, I was going through the equipment room and I ran into Barton…" Raylee said as she tried to pull her body into a semi sitting position, Tony noticed her struggling so he stood up and helped her. She smiled softly at him as he sat back down. "Barton and I fought then he… then he stabbed me."

"You do realize Barton wasn't in control of what he was doing?" Fury said moving closer to her bed. "Loki did something to his head and was controlling him."

"If you had heard the things he said to me you wouldn't believe that." Raylee said as she looked away from Fury.

"How long before we could get Agent Matthews back on the field where she belongs?" Fury asked the doctor and Tony started shaking his head again. "What is your problem now Stark?"

"The lady has been awake all of twenty minutes and you're already asking when she could get back to work." Tony said standing up.

"Director that could take some time, there is so much we need to do and tests that we need to run." The doctor said getting Fury's attention. "She will need therapy also."

"I could bring in some very good doctors to help her through the process." Tony said and Fury glared at him.

"We have doctors here that can do that." Fury said to him.

"Not the best and that's what I'm bringing in." Tony said walking away as he pulled his phone out not giving Fury a chance to refuse again.

Fury had Raylee moved to one of the ground bases so she could start rehab with Tony's doctors. It had been a couple of weeks since she woke up and the doctors Tony had brought in have work with her around the clock because she refused to depend on people so she wanted her independence back. Things were nowhere near easy for her but she fought enough that she was finally able to gain the strength in her legs and was able to move around on her own. She wasn't at a hundred percent but enough for her to feel independent. Natasha had gotten word of Raylee waking up and once she got to a secured line she called. The two friends had talked like nothing had happened neither wanting to bring up the incident. Raylee was in the middle of therapy when Tony walked in the gym.

"My one and only favorite agent, how are you doing?" he asked walking up to her with a smirk and she just shrugged her shoulders at him, the two had become good friends so quick. Tony Stark has come in every day checking on her progress, he had even brought Pepper with a few times and the two of them worked with Raylee. "I'll take that as things are not hard enough for you… should I go get Captain Rogers to come and train with you or would you prefer me as Ironman?" Tony asked as he sat on a bench across from where she was working out.

"Neither, I didn't say it was easy." She said standing up. "I just feel worn out a lot."

"Do you want to go back to laying in a bed all day? We could arrange that." Tony asked her, he already knew what her answer was because every time she was about to give up he would ask her that and she would fight more. "I can have Fury prep your old room back on the tin can."

"I am not giving up!" she snapped at him as she walked over by him snatching the bottle of water from next to him and walked away slowly. "I am tired of seeing the same three rooms every single day. I'm either here, my room, or the kitchen. I need to do something different, I need to get away from here."

"Then go in another room." Tony said sarcastically and she glared at him over her shoulder. "Fine, let's go."

"Where?" she questioned turning to face him as he stood up and walked towards her.

"We can start by you going to take a shower and put some decent clothes on because I don't think Pepper would be happy with me bringing a half naked woman home." Tony said as he walked pass her and she started walking to keep up with him. "You and Pepper are going to need to shop today because the three of us have a party to attend tonight."

"Are you serious?" Raylee asked him as they came to a stop in front of her room.

"You said you're tired of the same three rooms now I'm giving you a chance to see more… unless of course you want to stay here." Tony said gesturing around them.

"No I want to go, just give me thirty minutes."

"You got twenty." He said smirking at her and Raylee rolled her eyes at him as she quickly went into the room. Twenty minutes later Tony was banging on the door screaming it was time to go. "Let's go we are on the clock here."

"Damn it Tony you're lucky I like you." she said yanking the door opened then followed him down the hall to the helipad where his helicopter was waiting.

Once they arrived at Stark Tower Pepper was waiting for Raylee and they took off to the store. The two ladies spent a couple of hours shopping for the right gown for Raylee because it had been so long since she had a reason to wear a gown. She finally agreed on a black floor length gown with sleeves that came just below the elbow and a slit on the left leg that went up pass mid-thigh. Raylee didn't want to answer questions about the scar on her face so Pepper did her best at covering it, she wanted one night free of anything to do with SHIELD. It had been so long since she was dressed this formal and she was enjoying the feel of it.

Tony was going over some data trying to ignore the calls he was getting from Fury because he was sure Fury was mad once he found out Raylee had left the compound with him. "Sir Director Fury said that you must take his call now, it is of importance." Jarvis said to him.

"Put him through, I might as well just get this over with." Tony said as the call popped on the screen. "What can I do for you Director?"

"Stark we got some reports that a very wanted and important mark we are trying to track will be at that gala you are attending. I have Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton doing some recon on the party site and we could take him quietly with your help." Fury said and Tony closed his eyes trying to think of what to do because he had Raylee going to the same gala with him and Pepper. "Stark I don't like how quiet you are being right now."

"I don't think this is good idea." Tony finally said to him. "We should just pick another party to ambush the guy at."

"Now why the hell would I do that if I know where he will be tonight?" Fury snapped at Tony. "Barton and Romanoff will be there."

"Agent Matthews will be at the party and I don't think she is quite ready to be back fighting crime yet."

"What the hell are you talking about; Agent Matthews is at ground base two." Fury said as Tony shook his head no and had a small smirk on his face. "Do not tell me you took her from the compound without my knowledge."

"Then I won't tell you that but Agent Matthews will be at that gala."

"Stark you are getting on the last of my nerves; you better keep a good eye on her."

"I got two good eyes so I will keep both of them on her." Tony said trying to hide his smirk.

Fury didn't bother replying to his remark, he disconnected the call and sent Maria to look for Natasha. This wasn't something he had expected or wanted, when the ground base called he thought they were calling him to complain about Stark agitating Matthews so he had declined the call and forgot to find out what they had needed. Barton has steered clear of Matthews and Fury knew this would be a problem.

"Director, you needed to see me?" Natasha said walking onto the bridge and over to Fury.

"Agent Romanoff we have a problem with tonight's mission." Fury said to her when she was fully standing in front of him. "Agent Matthews is going to be at the gala tonight."

"How? I thought she was still going through rehab." Natasha said sounding shocked. "I thought she wasn't ready for this."

"Stark picked her up today and she's at Stark Tower."

"Who is a Stark Tower?" Clint asked walking in on their conversation.

"Agent Matthews." Fury said looking over at Natasha then back at Clint. "She will be at the gala tonight."

"Wait a minute what the hell is Ray doing with Tony Stark, when I checked on her this morning she was at ground base two." Clint said to them, until now he had never told anyone that he had been going to the base everyday checking on her. Raylee herself had not known that either. "I saw Ray going into the gym for therapy."

"You've been down to ground base two?" Fury asked sounding confused.

"When I got some free time I go down there to see how things are going with her."

"Stark is supposed to keep his eyes on her so I want the two of you to try and be discrete about apprehending the mark, I don't want her to know there is trouble there." Fury said looking at his two agents and could tell Clint was mad. "Agent Matthews needs to stay far from this."

Natasha and Clint walked away from Fury and once they were around the corner Natasha grabbed Clint's arm stopping him. "Why didn't you tell me that you were going down to see Ray?"

"Because I don't want to be questioned on why I was going." Clint said as he slowly pulled his arm away.

"I would have not asked you why but now I want to know why you would hide it if I had been trying to get you down there in the first place and you would tell me no."

"I'm the reason Ray got hurt and I wanted to make sure she was doing better." He said and Natasha raised her eyebrow at him, he shook his head knowing where her mind was going. "Don't read more into it Natasha, we were friends and that was it."

"Were? Was?" Natasha asked shocked by his choice of words. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"We need to get ready so just drop it." Clint said turning and walking away from her. Clint couldn't explain things to anyone about how he felt for Raylee because he didn't understand it either. He was a trained assassin that knew all too well feelings ruin things and didn't work well with the job they did.

It was late evening when Tony Stark arrived at the gala with Pepper and Raylee, the three of them walked around the party talking with several people but Raylee had notice how Tony had kept looking towards the entrance and she was wondering why. Not too long later he moved away from them after a gentleman had walked in.

Raylee was a trained agent she saw all the signs that there was some kind trouble and Tony was hiding it from her. Raylee talked with Pepper and few people while trying to keep an eye on Tony when he and the guy started talking very tensely so she excused herself. She went out one of the side doors to come around the front and get a closer ear on what was going on between them without being seen, just as she was creeping up on the door someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth while pulling her back, whoever had her was too strong and she was having a hard time getting out of his grip.

 **AN: To the guest reader that asked why the story changed from the Avengers to Captain America... I decided to take the story into a different direction than I was aiming for with the last one. Even though the story seems the same in the beginning I do promise it will so change within the next few chapters.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or it's characters, I own my OC and others that I create.**

Raylee was in panic mode as she was trying her hardest to move the hand that was covering her mouth. She was about to freak out when the person the held her leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Raylee relax and stay quiet, it's just me." Clint whispered in her ear as he moved his hand from her mouth but kept the other arm wrapped around her waist holding her close to him, she tried her best to relax but it wasn't easy considering the last time she saw Clint he had stabbed her. "I knew you would pick up on this but we have it under control." Clint whispered.

"Barton, what is going on here?" Raylee asked him in a shaky voice and she knew he could hear it.

"Just go back to the party and stay near Pepper." Clint said as he released her and she turned to face him for the first time, he wanted to apologize to her but he knew this wasn't the time or place for that. "You shouldn't be here."

"Barton, Stark and our mark are moving towards your location take cover quick." Natasha's voice said over the communicator in his ear when she saw the two of them moving towards Clint and Raylee's location from where she was hiding. "They are just twenty feet away from turning the corner."

"Shit!" Clint growled as he grabbed Raylee's hand. "We gotta move now before we are spotted."

"Tell me what's going on and what needs to be done." She said as he pulled her into a door way to hide.

"We need this guy tonight and we need him alive for Fury, if this guy knows we are here for him he will fight and bringing him in alive may then be out the window."

"I'll distract him, just don't take long on doing whatever you guys need to do." Raylee said as she started to move away from him but he grabbed her pulling her back towards him. "Barton just let me do this."

"No, you are unarmed and shit could go wrong." Clint growled in a low voice.

"Between you, Natasha and Tony being here I will be fine." Raylee said as she pulled her arm away from him.

"Tony?" Clint hissed at her. "You and Stark are on a first name bases now?"

"Tony has been by my side since the beginning so yes we are." She snapped at him in a low voice. "Now quit stalling me and let me do what I am trained to do."

"Ray…" Clint began to say but Raylee stepped out into the hall before he could finish. "Fuck! Natasha keep an eye on Raylee she is using herself as a distraction." Clint growled into the ear com and was pissed Raylee was no longer in his eye sight, he hated being on ground level and not being able to see everything but he had hoped to get her out of there before this had gone down.

"What the hell is she doing?" Natasha snapped watching Raylee move closer to the two men walking her way. Natasha knew Raylee could hold her own but she was worried about whether or not she was ready for this. "Clint I have her in sight."

Tony's eyes went wide when he spotted Raylee walking towards him and the General as she pulled her phone out of her clutch hoping to make it look like a recorder of some kind. "Mr. Stark, I am a reporter with the New York Times and I was wondering if you had a couple of minutes for a few questions?" she said coming to a stop in front of them. "Hello." She said looking over at the general and giving him a small smile.

"Mr. Stark we were discussing some private business we don't have time for this nonsense." The guy said with a thick Russian accent.

"Yes we were General Grekov." Tony said to him as he turned towards Raylee with a glare on his face. "Um… Ms.?"

"It's Ms. Barnes and I promise this won't take long at all." Raylee said to him with a soft smile. "My editor Mr. Clinton would be upset if I come back to the office with nothing, I am so sorry General I promise this won't take long. Just a few questions please."

"I really can't turn down a pretty lady like you, General do you mind?" Tony said turning to face him. "She can ask a few questions while we walk then be on her way."

The general just grunted at them and they started walking towards where Raylee had left Clint waiting. Just as they were passing the doorway a dart shot out and hit the general in the throat and Tony caught him before he hit the floor. Clint came out and Natasha came running down the hall as Tony turned to face Raylee with a glare on his face.

"What the hell is your problem?" Tony snapped at her. "You could have been hurt!"

"Do you have any idea how bad that could have gone?" Clint snapped at her.

"Why don't the two of you back off!" Natasha snapped at them. "Ray did what she was trained to do and did it well."

"I am not weak, I know what the hell I was doing." Raylee snapped at them as she turned and started to walk away from them.

"Where the hell are you going?" Tony yelled towards her.

"Back to the party, I'm in need of a drink." She said to him as she glanced over her shoulder at them. "Tony are you coming or are you leaving with Nat and Agent Barton."

"Oh… I could really use a drink… you two got this right?" Tony said handing the slumped man over to Clint and Clint glared at him. "Tell Fury I'll see him tomorrow."

Clint stood there in a rage as he watched Raylee and Stark walk back to the party quietly talking to each other. He could feel the jealousy of their friendship eating at him, it wasn't supposed to be like that. Natasha could see the anger in Clint and got worried about how this was going to affect him. Natasha and Clint had loaded General Grekov on the Quinjet and took off back to the helicarrier with their prisoner. Clint was in a bad mood and Natasha knew why and was determined to get him to talk to her about it.

"Clint what's on your mind?"

"Nothing, I just want to get this over with because I need some damn rest already." Clint said focusing on the sky in front of him but he knew what she was up to. "Natasha I told you to drop it."

"I am not going to drop it anymore." she snapped at him and he just grunted. "I can see how much it bothered you when she walked away with Stark just now."

"Natasha leave it alone there isn't shit going on between us." Clint said to her. "Some things are better left untouched."

"I will leave it alone if you tell me right now that you don't have deep feeling for her." Natasha said as they approached the carrier and landed. "You wouldn't go near Raylee's room when she was in a coma and I cannot get you in the same room with her since she woke up but yet you were sneaking down to check on Raylee and didn't even tell her you were doing it."

"I wasn't sneaking, just because I didn't tell you does not mean anything." Clint said getting up from his seat. "Let's just get this guy in the detention area and brief Director Fury."

"You can't keep avoiding me but I'm gonna let this drop for now." Natasha said getting up to open the back hatch, there were armed SHIELD agents standing there waiting for the prisoner.

Back at the gala Tony and Pepper were dancing with each other and Raylee was having a drink while some guy talked to her about something she wasn't even paying any mind to. She just nodded and smiled at all the appropriate times to make it look like she was interested but her mind was on Clint not the current conversation. When he got mad at her for helping out all she could think about was him calling her weak and pathetic.

Tony noticed she wasn't paying any attention to the guy talking to her, by looking at her he knew she was upset about something. "Pepper, let me have this next dance with Raylee." Tony said pulling out of the hold to look her in the face. "She looks upset and I think I know why."

"Tony whatever you do don't make her more upset." Pepper scolded him and he looked at her shocked.

"I would never do that." He said in shocked voice as he grabbed his chest in mocked hurt. "Why must you think so little of me?"

"You know exactly why." she said giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "Now play nice, I'm going to go talk with a few people."

Pepper walked away while Tony walked over to Raylee. "May I have this dance?" Tony asked cutting the guy off from whatever he was saying to her and she smiled at him. "Sorry my man but a pretty lady needs to be dancing not standing here listening to stories."

"Mr. Stark I was just telling Ms. Barnes about…" was all the guy could get out before Tony cut him off again.

"Nope still not interested." Tony said to the guy as he turned to Raylee. "Ms. Barnes… Can I have this dance?"

"It would be my pleasure." She said grabbing Tony's hand and he led her out to the dance floor. "Thanks for the save, that guy just wouldn't shut up and I have no idea what he was talking about."

"So Agent Matthews when did you change your name to Ms. Barnes?" Tony asked her sarcastically.

"I didn't want the guy to have my real name so I figure I would stick with Ms. Barnes. I think it had a nice ring to it." She said smiling at him.

"Good call Agent Matthews… how did you come up with the name?" Tony asked smirking at her as they danced.

"Honestly it just came to me when I was in the moment."

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"Nothing, why do you ask?" she asked him defensively.

"Raylee sweetheart for being a spy, you are not very good at lying to me." Tony said trying to be a smartass but ended up getting a completely different response then he had expected.

Raylee pulled out the hold they had with each other and quickly walked away from Tony. She quickly moved pass Pepper and out the door to the balcony coming to a stop at the railing. Pepper watched as Raylee left the room then turned to glare at Tony who was still standing in the middle of the dance floor with a shock look on his face. Once he got over it he started to go towards the way Raylee had gone but Pepper stepped in front of him before he could go out the door.

"Tony Stark what did you say to her?" Pepper snapped at him. "I told you not to upset her more than she was."

"I have no idea what I said, I thought we were having a good start over there." Tony said shaking his head at her. "I need to get to the bottom of this."

"No you don't!" Pepper snapped at him in a low voice.

"Yeah I do… wait alcohol always helps at time like this." Tony said as he turned away from Pepper and walked to the bar and got two drinks then quickly moved around Pepper who had followed him and went out to the balcony slowly walking towards Raylee. "Alcohol always helps." he said handing her the drink and when she turned to face him he saw the tears in her eyes as she grabbed the drink. "Raylee what's wrong sweetheart, did I do something or say something wrong?"

"It was what you said." Raylee said wiping the tears away before they could fall then took a drink from the glass.

"I was just joking with you, I didn't mean it." Tony said in a remorseful voice. "You're one of the best agents I have met and the only one I truly like having around."

"Tony you barely know me and you haven't even seen what I can do on the field." Raylee said smiling a little at him.

"Hey six months sitting next to your bed while you slept was plenty of time to hack into Fury's data base, like I taught you so I read everything they had on you." Tony said smirking at her. "A one sided conversation is no fun so I kept myself busy. You wouldn't answer my questions so I answered them myself."

"So you read about Ireland?"

"Yeah…? It was a mistake and you lived so let it go." Tony said shrugging his shoulders at her. "You're not perfect but you are great at what you do. What does that have to do with this?"

"When Clint was under Loki's mind control he told me I was weak, pathetic and didn't deserve to be an agent."

"Oh… I see." Tony said sounding shocked as he downed the rest of his drink and took the little she had left in her glass and finished that one too. "I think we need to get some more drinks I'll be right back." Tony said turning away with both glasses and went back to the bar, he needed a few minutes to think about what she had just said to him and more drinks was a good excuse to get away for a minute.

Pepper spotted him coming in so she quickly went over to him. "Did you apologize to her?"

"It wasn't me this time, Agent Barton is the one that upset her." Tony said grabbing the two drinks that was placed in front of him.

"Now explain to me how Agent Barton can do that if he is not here." Pepper said to him and he smirked.

"I will explain it all to you but that will have to wait." Tony said giving her a quick kiss and went back out to the balcony.

Tony and Raylee spoke out there for another hour, she told him about Ireland and the fight between her and Clint before he left to guard the tesseract. After hearing all that Tony could plainly see how much Raylee cared for Barton. Raylee knew she was letting her guard down with Tony by telling him everything but it felt good to her to let it all out. A little while later Tony dropped Pepper off at Stark Tower before taking Raylee back to ground base two. The helicopter landed on the helipad and when they got there they were greeted by Fury, Maria, Natasha and Clint standing there waiting.

Raylee leaned close to Tony to talk to him over the roaring of the helicopter. "It looks like one of us is in some trouble." She said smiling at him.

"Nope not one I think we are both in trouble." Tony said back to her with a smirk on his face.

Raylee held her dress close to her in an attempt to keep it from flying up and once they were far enough from the helicopter and closer to the waiting firing squad she let her dress fall to the ground again. "Hello Director Fury." Raylee said to him and he just nodded at her.

"We need to talk… all of us." Fury said turning and walking away.

"Is he mad at me or Tony?" Raylee asked Natasha in a low voice as they followed behind him.

"Both of you." Natasha said looking over at her. "He is mad at Stark for taking you from here without the clearance and at you for getting involved with the mission when you haven't been cleared to do so yet."

"I wasn't in any immediate danger." Raylee said shaking her head. "All of you were there the whole time."

"Clint and I both tried to tell him it was under control but he is just worried about you." Natasha said as Raylee looked over at Clint but he was looking forward.

The six of them went into one of the briefing rooms to talk, Fury was mad and they all stood there quiet listening to him yell except Tony who kept irritating Fury with his smart remarks. Once Tony had enough of Fury he excused himself and left with a promise to come back to irritate Fury more another day. Once Tony was gone Fury seemed calmer.

"Agent Matthews I am going to have Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton stay to finish helping with the remainder of your therapy. I think it's time to step it up and get you back on the field as soon as possible, you are needed on an assignment very soon."

"Yes sir… that is exactly what I want." Raylee said to him.

"Get some sleep Agent Matthews, you will be getting up very early tomorrow." Fury said as Raylee stood up and left the room. "Agent Romanoff don't hold anything back with her, get her at a hundred percent as soon as possible."

"Yes sir." Natasha said walking out.

"Barton keep your eyes on everything here." Fury said as Clint was about to walk out. "I haven't been able to brief you as of late due to all the work going on but we think there is a threat."

"What kind of threat are we talking about?" Clint asked turning to face Fury fully.

"Patrick O'Dell." Fury said getting Clint's full attention.

"He is dead, I checked the body myself. How the hell is he a threat if Raylee killed him?"

"His brother has taken over and we have reason to believe he wants to avenge his brother." Fury said as he glanced around to make sure no ears were close to them. "I have reason to believe he will target Agent Matthews and we need to be alert until she is ready."

"How are we dealing with this threat?" Clint asked as he felt the urge to hit someone.

"We put word out there that she is in New Mexico and still in a coma hoping to set a trap, I have Captain Rogers working on this." Fury said in a stern voice. "If anything hits we will let you know but until then don't let her out of your sight."

"Yes sir." Clint said walking away.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or it's characters, I own my OC and others that I create.**

It has been a couple of weeks since Natasha and Clint started working with Raylee. It was supposed to be a down day for them but Raylee was in the gym doing some lite work outs while Natasha worked on some files Fury sent down to her. Clint walked into the gym and watched from a distance while she worked at hitting the punching bag. So far there hasn't been any movement in New Mexico and everything Steve checked turned out to be dead ends and that wasn't making anyone feel better. Rogers had decided to take a trip to Ireland to see if he could find anything out about Patrick's brother so they would know what they were dealing with or what she was up against.

"You do know what a down day is don't you?" Clint asked from where he was leaning against the wall. Other than working with her in therapy and workouts the two of them hadn't talked much and he was hoping to change that right now. "You need to let your body rest."

Raylee stopped mid punch and turned to see Clint standing there. "Yeah I do but if I am going to have any chance against Phillip I can't afford a down day."

Clint's eyes went wide when she mentioned Patrick's brother, no one had said anything to her about that, Natasha had just found a few days ago herself. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Barton don't play stupid with me, I know you are better than that." Raylee said as she pulled the gloves off her hands. "Tony has shown me a few ways of hacking into the systems around here."

"So what's up with you and Stark?" Clint asked changing the subject as he was moving closer to her.

"We are just friends that's it… are you going to help me or are you going to just stand there and watch?" Raylee asked him as she moved over to the mats.

"Ray you know I had my reasons for not being around." Clint said as he shrugged his jacket off and moved over to the mats. "I know I should…" was all Clint got out when Raylee swung at him but he ducked before it connected with his face. "What the hell Matthews I wasn't ready." He snapped at her as she swung again and this time he blocked it while pushing her back.

"Wasn't it you that said you should always be ready for an attack." She snapped at him as she kicked him in his side making him stumble back a little. "Keep your head in the game and never let your emotions cloud your judgment."

"I know what the hell I said to you." he growled at her as he swung at her and she blocked it but Raylee didn't see his leg come up hitting her in the gut and she stumbled back a little. "You really want to take this at full force right now?"

"Why hold back?" she snapped at him as she swung again and once again he blocked her hit.

"You were stabbed and in a coma." He growled at her as he swung at her and she blocked his hit.

"I had six months to heal." She snapped at him. "I'm not weak and pathetic. I might not be an Avenger but I can hold my own."

"We need to talk about that." Clint said sweeping her leg from under her knocking her to the floor and she quickly jumped back to her feet. "Ray I wasn't in the right state of mind."

"Yeah that might be true but the words were loud and clear when you said them." She said swinging at him and connected with his gut. "They were your thoughts voiced by your mouth."

Natasha decided to take a break from the files and walked down to the gym to see what Raylee was doing. When she got to the door and opened it she was shocked to see Clint and Raylee fighting each other. Natasha stood there holding the door open and watched as Clint caught Raylee's leg in mid swing then swept her other leg out from under her. When Raylee's back hit the mat Clint released the leg he was holding and she quickly swept both of his legs out from under him and he fell down next to her. Natasha shook her head as she backed out of the room and left them to work this out on their own.

"Ray I'm sorry for everything." Clint said as he laid there next to her breathing heavy as he looked up at the ceiling and Raylee was doing the same. "I said some pretty shitty things to you and I didn't mean any of it."

"All the things you and Nat trained me for the one thing you guys forgot to teach was being prepared for an attack from your own friend." Raylee said looking over at him ignoring his comment about not meaning what he said. "I couldn't hurt you Clint, I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

"I had no control over what I was doing and I wish like hell you would have shot me." Clint said rolling to his side and propped himself up on one of his elbows. "You had your gun why didn't you pull it?"

"I already told you… I couldn't hurt you, I let my feelings get in the way." she said turning her head to face the other way. "Let's just try and forget about it."

"Raylee don't shut me out." Clint said as he reached forward and turned her head back to face him, he noticed the tear slide down her cheek and he wiped it away with his thumb. "I'm sorry."

Raylee looked up at him and the connection she felt to him was too much for her to handle, when she felt him move closer to her she quickly slid out from under his arm and sat up with her back to him. "We should let Director Fury know that I know about O'Dell." Raylee said changing the subject.

"I will but we need to talk." Clint said as he sat up next to her and she quickly stood up on her feet keeping her back to him.

"I can't do this, I'm just…" Raylee didn't get a chance to finish what she was saying because one of the doctors had walked in the room.

"Agent Matthews we need to run some test to see where you stand at the moment." The doctor said as he walked closer to her. "Director Fury has sent Dr. Banner to conduct the testing and he should be here very soon."

"Ok, I'll be ready as soon as I get cleaned up." she said to the doctor and he walked away to go to one of the labs.

"Raylee we are not done with this." Clint said walking over to her but she still didn't turn to face him.

"I know that but it's going to have to wait, can you inform Fury that I know about O'Dell?"

"Yeah." Clint said as he walked away.

Raylee wanted more than anything to tell Clint how she felt about him but she didn't want to ruin what was left of their friendship and partnership. She knew things would be different between them after what had happened, her trust in him wasn't completely gone but it was not as it was before. After Tony had showed her how to hack into the data base Raylee looked in to her visitor's log and was upset that all six months not once did his name appear on it. It was just the same three names repeated over and over, Tony, Natasha and Captain Rodgers. She didn't know the Avengers personally so it wasn't a shock that they didn't all visit, it did shock her how much Tony did but she had expected Clint to be there for her and he wasn't.

Clint walked into one of the briefing rooms to call Fury to let him know that Raylee knows about O'Dell looking for her. He had no idea what had gotten into him back in the gym, he wanted and was about to kiss her until she had moved from under his arm. Natasha had been right there was something between them and he didn't know how to deal with it. Clint just shook his head and scrolled to Fury's number.

"What do you got for me Agent Barton?" Fury said once he answered.

"We got a slight situation down here." Clint said wiping his hand across his head. "Agent Matthews knows about O'Dell."

"How the hell does she know about O'Dell if no one down there other then you and Natasha knew about this?" Fury snapped at him.

"Tony Stark." Was Clint's only response.

"I did not tell Stark about this." Fury growled at him.

"Stark taught Matthews how to fucking hack the data base and who knows what else he has been teaching her." Clint said sounding aggravated and pissed. "I don't like this friendship the two of them have."

"I don't either… Stark having Agent Matthews on his side is not good but he is the reason she is fighting so hard."

"Director I don't understand how they got so damn close in such a short time." Clint said as he closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, he could feel the jealousy eating at him.

"Agent Barton if you think something is going on between them, stop." Fury said in a stern voice. "Stark and Pepper Potts both friended Matthews, she has been working with the both of them."

"Yes sir." Clint said to him.

"I'll be down there in one hour to talk with Matthews about O'Dell, bring Agent Romanoff up to date with all of this." Fury said signing off before Clint could respond to him.

Raylee walked into the lab where one of the doctors was updating Dr. Banner on her. "Hello gentlemen." Raylee said as she approached them.

"Hello Agent Matthews." Dr. Banner said in a soft voice as the other doctor just nodded at her. "Director Fury said you have been doing amazing at healing and getting back into condition."

"Yes, I think I'm ready to get back to work and off of this ground base." Raylee said with a smile. "And you can call me Raylee."

"Ok Raylee, well let's run these test and see where you stand and then worry about getting you back out there." Bruce said to her.

He motioned for her to sit on the examine table and did his best to examined her, not being sure of what he was doing. He wasn't there to clear her, the doctor had done that but he need to see what frame of mind she was in for Fury. It wasn't anywhere near his specialty but he agreed to help out with his own agenda in mind. They held a small conversation and to his knowledge he thought she seemed perfectly fine and stable. Bruce decided to take the conversation into another direction to get some answers that were intriguing his interest.

"I had a question… you don't have to answer it." Bruce said with a small smile.

"What do you want to know?" she asked him.

"I've spent some time working with Fury after the New York incident and the way he was worried about you seemed a little… off for him."

"Ok… what is your question?" Raylee asked with a hesitated voice.

"I know there is some kind of connection with you two and I was wondering what it was." He asked her and she looked a little shocked then she looked over at the other doctor who just happened to be patiently waiting for her to answer his question. Bruce looked over his shoulder and noticed the same thing. "Doctor can you give us a few minutes alone?"

"Yes Dr. Banner, I can just run this stuff to the other lab." The doctor said as he quickly left the room.

"Sorry about that, I should have asked him to leave before I had asked that." Bruce said turning back to face her. "Was I right is there a connection between you and Director Fury?"

"Yes you're right." Fury answered him walking into the lab startling the two of them. "Agent Matthews… Raylee is my niece."

Bruce looked between the two of them and was completely confused, they didn't look like they were related at all. Raylee and Fury could tell he was confused, Fury just stood there smirking and Raylee shook her head at him. "Dr. Banner, Nick was married to my mother's sister."

"Oh… that makes sense, does anyone else know about this?" Bruce asked looking back over at Fury.

"Only Agent Coulson and one other person knew about this, I wiped the records out that showed the relation." Fury said walking closer to them. "Dr. Banner you seem to have a good eye on details. When my wife Sandra died I promised her I would do everything in my power to keep Raylee safe."

"But she's an agent for SHIELD so how do you plan on keeping that promise?" Bruce said sounding shocked. "Shouldn't you have started by not letting her join this secret agency?"

"Raylee was already a SHIELD agent when Sandra died and being one of my best agents I couldn't just let her go." Fury said as he looked over at Raylee for a second before looking back at Bruce. "The records were wiped out by Agent Coulson so no one would be able to use her against me."

"None of the Avengers know about this… even Tony Stark is out of the loop?" Bruce asked sounding shocked.

"No trail, paper or computer could put this one together." Raylee said to him smirking. "Like Nick said you have a good eye for details and with the life we live around here it's hard for anyone to pay close attention to it."

"I over heard Agent Barton telling you about Raylee knowing about O'Dell… what is that about?" Bruce asked looking between them.

"That is about a man out for revenge against Raylee because she killed his brother." Tony said walking into the lab. "So what does Dr. Banner have a good eye about details for?"

"Does anyone knock before walking into a room anymore?" Raylee said sounding shocked and relieved that Tony didn't hear any more than that.

"I missed you too Matthews." Tony said sarcastically to her. "So Director Fury were you planning on telling anyone about this manic that is after our friend here?"

"How the hell did you find out about…" Fury stopped talking when he realized exactly how Stark found out about O'Dell. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop looking into SHIELD's files without permission to do so?"

"If there weren't so many secrets around here I wouldn't have to do that." Tony said as he sat in one of the chairs getting comfortable.

"It's a secret agency." Fury said sarcastically to him. "What do you want Stark?"

"I want to know what you are doing about this O'Dell problem."

"We have this under control and you can stay out of it Stark." Captain Rogers said as he entered the room.

"Are you serious… how many more people are going to walk in here?" Raylee said shaking her head and Bruce smiled at her.

"Sorry Agent Matthews but I was told I could find Director Fury in here." Steve said in a polite voice. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"It's ok." She said to him feeling bad that he took her comment personal. "I didn't mean that against you but thank you for being the only one to apologize."

"Not a problem ma'am." He said with a smile and she couldn't help but smile back at him.

"You told Capsicle about this problem but kept me out of it." Tony snapped at Fury as he ignored Steve and Raylee's little conversation. "I am the only friend she has in this room and I was kept in the dark."

"You are not her only friend. You're too hot headed and that's why no one said anything to you." Steve said shaking his head at him.

"Um… guys can I finish with Raylee's test while you finish this conversation in another room?" Bruce said to them when he realized she was getting uncomfortable with what they were talking about.

"Yes and once you have the results please inform me." Fury said walking to the door. "Gentlemen let's take this to the briefing room."

Raylee and Bruce watched as the guys left the room. "Thank you Dr. Banner, I can't stand how they talked liked I was not sitting here."

"Just call me Bruce, I noticed the same thing and it was my pleasure to get them out of here." Bruce said smiling at her. "Raylee I was done already and I think you are ready to get back on the field, there aren't any signs of long term effect from the coma and your body has healed very well from the long slumber you took."

"I guess if Captain Rogers could sleep for seventy years, six months wasn't too bad for me." she said smiling at him.

"The difference is that Captain Rogers was enhanced and frozen… you weren't." Bruce said walking over to the lab desk. "You were able to get well because you pushed yourself to do so but I do think you should still be monitored for a while until we know for sure things are well with you."

"But you are going to clear me, right?" Raylee asked.

"Yes, I'll just check in on you every now and then to make sure things are going well." Bruce said smiling. "We should go and let Fury know and we could see if they are done arguing about things yet."

"Yeah I doubt they are." Raylee said hopping off the table. "I wouldn't be surprised if Clint and Nat are in there already with them." The two of them walked over to the briefing room where they could hear the yelling coming from, Bruce shook his head at her as they walked in. Everyone was so deep in the argument they didn't even notice them standing there until Clint looked over at them then it got quiet. "You don't have to stop because of us." Raylee said sarcastically to them.

"How did the test go?" Fury asked looking over at Bruce and he just nodded at him. "Good, now let's figure out what we should do about this problem we have."

"I still think we just hunt down the guy and kill him then the problem will be gone." Tony said shrugging his shoulders.

"We can't just hunt him down and kill him, we need a plan." Steve said shaking his head at Tony.

"What is with you and needing a plan?" Tony asked him sarcastically. "The plan is kill him."

"Cap has been trying to track him for weeks now, SHIELD can't get a lock on his location." Natasha said as she ran her fingers through her hair. "The trap they had isn't working."

"Why don't we just put Raylee at a location O'Dell can find to draw him out?" Clint said looking over at her. "We set up around her and wait."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Tony growled at him.

"That would put her right in the middle of danger." Bruce said looking over at Fury. "Wouldn't that be the opposite of what you should be doing?"

"I think Clint is right." Raylee said in a loud voice so she could be heard. "If I am spotted O'Dell will make a move then we could make ours."

"We will be there with her, she won't be alone." Natasha said looking over at Bruce. "Raylee has done missions like this before and it worked for us every time."

"We need to make sure there is a threat there first." Fury said looking over the group. "Agent Matthews is being reassigned to headquarters for a while.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Marvel characters. I own my OC and any other characters I make along the way.**

The whole group stood quiet looking between the two when Fury said she was being reassigned, Raylee looked at Fury with a shock look on her face. She couldn't believe what he had just said about her being reassigned to Washington DC. It made no sense if he was getting her cleared for field work but was making her go to SHIELD headquarters rather than sending her out. She looked over at Natasha and Clint and they both looked as surprised as she was. They may have been on different mission without each other many times but none of them had been reassigned away from each other since she began working with them.

"Why am I being reassigned… what did I do?" Raylee asked sounding as shocked as she looked. "I worked hard to get back where I was before the incident… I am fucking trying here."

"I think that's a smart move." Tony said crossing his arms over his chest. "You should ease back in."

"Stay out of this Stark." Raylee snapped at him as she turned back to Fury. "I was cleared for field work but you're making me leave. Do they plan on sticking me at a desk?"

"I'm not making you leave." Fury said shaking his head. "We have an assignment for you and that's why I had you cleared."

"What about O'Dell?" Clint said looking between Steve and Nat. "We can't just leave this alone, what if he comes for her while she's in DC?"

"I agree with Agent Barton." Steve said looking over at Fury. "This can't be ignored."

"This will not be ignored, Captain Rogers we will continue to look into this but we need to continue with our other work."

"Sending me to DC feels more like a punishment than me getting back to work."

"I will brief you in a moment Agent Matthews." Fury said sternly to her as he turned to her partners. "I have assignments for all of you."

"I will take my leave." Tony said looking over at everyone then walked over to Raylee. "Don't be a stranger and let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you for everything." She said reaching forward and hugged Stark. "I'll call once I'm settled into my cell." Tony smirked at her and nodded at everyone as he left.

"Agent Matthews can we speak alone?" Fury said nodding his head to the door and Raylee nodded as she followed him out. They walked down the hall and turned the corner to talk in private, Fury stopped and turned to face her. "Raylee this is not a punishment. The helicarrier is still in need of many repairs and everyone is being reassigned to something else for now."

"Nick I am being sent to headquarters." Raylee said to him.

"We have a German scientist coming in and he needs protection while here and I need one of my best agents on this." Fury said looking down at her with a stern look. "This man has a lot of information I need so he needs to remain alive while you are with him and he needs to return to Germany alive."

"I understand." Raylee said squaring her shoulders and nodding at him. "What about Bruce and his knowledge of us."

"I will talk with Dr. Banner to make sure he says nothing. Go get your things together and you can catch a ride with Steve." Fury said as he kissed her forehead then turned and walked away.

Raylee turned around to go to her room but came to a sudden stop when she saw Clint standing there. Clint looked hurt and pissed at the same time, she wasn't sure how long he had been standing there and didn't know what he had seen or heard. When she went to talk he put his hand up stopping her then shook his head and walked away from her. "Clint." She yelled but he kept walking not even turning to look at her.

Seeing Fury and Raylee together in the hall had not surprised Clint but what he heard and saw did. Natasha was wrong when she had assumed there was a connection between him and Raylee, she has some kind of secret relationship with Nick Fury. He had started to let his feelings for her screw with his head and now he was mad, he should have noticed how close they were with each other before and now that he thinks back to the last few years since Fury's wife died Clint realized how protective Fury was over Raylee and now it made complete sense to him.

After everyone was briefed on what their next missions were going to be Fury had Clint and Natasha fly Steve and Raylee to headquarters. Raylee only packed the stuff she knew she would need knowing Fury would send the rest when she was ready for it. As she came walking out of her room with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder Steve came walking down the hall.

"Agent Matthews." He said with a polite nod and she smiled at him.

"Captain Rogers you can call me Ray."

He nodded at her with a smile of his own. "I came this way to see if you needed any help."

"I only have this bag." She said gesturing to the bag over her shoulder.

"May I?" he asked reaching for the bag. "Where I come from a gentleman always offers help. I know you can carry it but can you indulge me?"

"Yes." Raylee said handing the bag to him.

"If you ever have some down time feel free to call me." Steve glanced over at her as they walked. "I've got a list of things people tell me I should check out and I'm not sure of half of it."

"That actually sounds like something I wouldn't mind doing." Raylee said smiling at him. "I think it would be fun popping Captain America's cherry with some new stuff."

"Popping my what?" he asked her with a raise eyebrow.

"First thing we have to do is work on the lingo you would probably hear." She said with a chuckle.

It had been so long since she had a conversation that didn't involve her recovery or anything pertaining to SHIELD. Steve and Raylee talked about random things on the walk to the quinjet and she couldn't stop smiling at him. As they loaded on Clint was already sitting in the pilot seat waiting and Bruce was sitting down reading something on a tablet. Steve placed the bag down and they both sat in the other available seats as Natasha came walking up the hatch.

"Raylee, can you co-pilot with Clint I got some stuff to talk with Cap about." Natasha asked, Raylee nodded at her and slowly walked over to sit in the seat next to Clint.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Steve asked Natasha when she sat next to him.

"Sorry Cap I really didn't have to talk, I just think there is something wrong with the two of them and I need to find out what it is." Natasha said glancing over at them. "I don't know what else to do."

"If there is a problem do you really think now is the best time to be trying to fix it." Steve asked also glancing at them and noticed the tension between the two of them.

"No I don't but I really don't have a choice." She said to him as she got comfortable in her seat and glanced over at Bruce. "What's up with you Banner, you've been really quiet today?"

"Nothing Agent Romanoff, just got a lot on my mind." Bruce said with a small smile, Fury had already asked him to keep quiet about their conversation even though he thought it wasn't good keeping this kind of secret from the team but he had agreed to do it.

Raylee sat down in the seat and started assisting Clint with the takeoff procedures, she looked over at him and he wouldn't look at her. "Clint you need to let me explain what you saw." She said in a low voice to him.

"Agent Matthews I don't need to let you explain anything. There is nothing you need to explain, what I saw explained enough." Clint said as he continued with his job, he didn't need or want her to confirm anything to him.

"Damn it that's not true, can you please stop being so stubborn and hear me out?" she snapped at him a little louder than she had intended to and the whole jet went quiet. They both looked behind them to see everyone looking at them.

Clint turned his head to finally look at Raylee and just the sight of her pissed him off more. "Agent Matthews if you're going to fly this jet with me you need to keep your mind on the task and nothing else." he snapped at her.

Raylee closed her eyes for a second to keep the tears from falling, when she felt safe enough that they wouldn't fall she looked back at him. "I will do that Agent Barton."

Natasha shook her head at the two of them, that had not gone the way she wanted it to and she felt bad because she knew Raylee well and she looked like she wanted to cry but was fighting it. Steve looked from the two agents and over to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff whatever is going on between the two of them is their business and everyone should stay out of it."

"It's hard to stay out of it when I depend on them to be able to work together along side of me." she said looking away from him. "They are both my partners."

"Secrets tend to put a strain on any relationship." Bruce said calmly from his seat still looking down at his tablet as the jet began its takeoff. "Everyone should open their eyes to everything around them."

"What do you mean by that Dr. Banner?" Steve asked in a curious voice.

Bruce just shrugged his shoulders and didn't bother answering the question he was asked. The ride to Washington DC was a quiet and tensed one. Clint only talked when he needed something and Raylee never answered him she just did what he needed. Natasha, Steve and Bruce just stood there watching the two. Once the jet was landed and a few goodbyes to the other three Raylee and Steve got off. She glanced once more at Clint as the hatch began to close then turned towards the door of the building they just landed on. The two quietly walked to the doors and enter the building.

"I think this is where we part." Steve said nodding to the agents that were there waiting for them.

"Yeah, I have a briefing." Raylee said nodding at him. "Let me see your phone." She said and he slowly pulled it out as he raised his eyebrow at her. "I'm going to put my number in it and you can call me when you want."

"Ok." He said with a smile and after a quick handshake they parted ways.

Raylee had a couple of weeks to settle in before the scientist was supposed to arrive. At her briefing she was told that this security detail was going to be a year long then she was going to be escorting him back to Germany. She was to stay with him the entire time he was not in the labs so the council was setting her up in a secure apartment for them. Once she was settled in Raylee called Pepper and found out that they had gone to Malibu for a while but they were happy to hear she was settled in. Raylee was sitting on the couch going over the files she had on the scientist when there was a knock at the door. She wasn't expecting anyone over so Raylee grabbed her pistol and quietly cocked it as she crept to the door and looked out the peephole. Only seeing what looked like a single agent she decided to voice her presence at the door.

"Who is?" she asked still looking through the peephole.

"Agent Rollins." He said holding up his identification for her to see.

Raylee stepped back from the door to open it, she didn't quite trust just anyone yet so she opted to keep the gun in her hand and visible to him as the door opened. "What can I do for you Agent Rollins?"

"Agent Matthews I was sent here because we will be working together on this security detail and they figure it would be nice if we met."

"I wasn't told about this." Raylee said as she gripped the gun a bit tighter bracing for a fight.

"Agent no need for things to get hostel." Rollins said raising his hands in show of no trouble from him when he noticed the grip she had on the gun. "I'm going to reach in my pocket for a piece of paper."

"Slow and if you try anything stupid the first bullet goes between your eyes." Raylee said as she lifted the gun and aimed it at him. "I won't hesitate to kill you."

"I like the feistiness." He said smirking at her as he pulled a folded paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. "I was told to give this to you."

Raylee slowly took the paper from his hand. "Who told you?"

"Director Fury… can you please lower the damn gun now?" Rollins said shaking his head.

"Why wasn't I told about any of this when I was briefed earlier?" Raylee asked as she lowered her gun.

"I have no idea." Rollins said shaking his head as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not used to being on babysitting duty… I'm normally with the strike team."

"I don't need a damn babysitter." Raylee said walking away from the door.

Rollins glanced around the apartment before going in and following her. "Tell that to the head of SHIELD, until I hear otherwise we are stuck with each other sweetheart."

"I'm not your sweetheart." Raylee snapped at him. "You can call me Agent… Agent Matthews or Raylee but nothing else."

After showing Rollins around the place and the things SHIELD had done to it to make it safe she handed him the files she was looking at then went to her room. She figured he could find a place for himself to sleep or just leave for all she cared. Raylee called and argued with Fury about assigning her a babysitter. He explained that Alexander Pierce felt the need to make sure she was a hundred percent before sending her off on her own again. Raylee felt like SHIELD was separating her from Natasha and Clint because they were a part of the Avengers and she wasn't.

Over the next week Raylee saw very little of Rollins because he was gone a lot with the strike team doing things she didn't have clearance for. Raylee had to report to the Triskelion on a daily basis until her assignment started. After talking with a few of the agents she knew there Raylee got on the elevator to leave and was surprised to see Steve on there with a few of the guys from the strike team.

"Hello gentlemen." Raylee said with a smile and they all nodded at her. "Garage." She said as she stepped on and her command was confirmed.

"I was going to call you tonight." Steve said smiling at her.

"I began to think you forgot about me." Raylee said with a small laugh when he frowned. "I'm just playing with you Cap. I knew you have been busy getting readjusted to things."

"Hey, do you have time for a cup of coffee?" he asked with a smile.

Raylee glanced at her watch before smiling up at him. "Yeah, that actually sounds great."

"I'll meet you in the garage in fifteen minutes." He said as the elevator opened and all the men got off.

"Alright." Raylee said as the doors closed again.

Just like he said Steve was walking towards her within fifteen minutes, dressed back in his street clothes. They both agreed on a small café not far from where they were so they drove their vehicles and met there. After placing their order Raylee leaned forward on the table to rest her chin on her hands and smiled at him.

"What?" he asked defensively and she smiled more at him.

"Have you met anyone?" she asked and he shook his head no. "You're Captain America there has to be tons of women wanting to drop at your feet."

"I'll start looking for a girl if you tell me what was going on between you and Agent Barton."

"That is not fair." Raylee said wagging her finger at him and this time it was him that smiled. "Barton and I are complicated."

"I was frozen for seventy years… I think I know complicated."

"Cap…" Raylee said in a whine and he shook his head. "Fine, I thought I had feelings for him but I was wrong."

"Were you wrong or are you afraid because what happened between you two when he was under Loki's control?" he asked as he clasped his hands and rested them on the table.

"I had thought it was fear but the more I thought about things I realized it wasn't." Raylee said but stopped talking when the waitress brought their drinks. They both smiled at her then she walked away. "Natasha, Clint and I always had each other's backs when it was needed. I think I had developed some feelings for him as time went by but the thought of ruining a friendship and partnership stopped them from going further."

"I think you're wrong but I'm not going to bother you any further about it." Steve said as he sat up straight. "So when does your next assignment start?"

Raylee was glad for the change of subject but wasn't keen on the new topic. "In about a week but Fury and Pierce has assigned me a babysitter."

When Steve raised his eyebrow at her in confusion Raylee explained what happened and what Fury told her. He was shocked that they were doing that but understood their concern when it came to her health and whether or not she was ready to be on her own yet. Steve had explained she was a great agent and did his best at explaining what was probably going through their minds when they made their decision. Raylee accepted his explanation but still wasn't happy about it.

Raylee quickly changed the subject again but this time it was focused on Steve. She wanted to know more about the man that sat in front of her and not just the stuff she read in his files. He smiled as he told her stories about his past and she loved seeing that smile on his face. They had spent a few hours sitting there drinking coffee and exchanging stories. When it was time to part ways she was sad to have to leave him when they were just getting to know each other better.

Over the next week they had exchanged calls with each other and text messages when they couldn't talk verbally. Steve was quickly becoming her new best friend and he liked that except when she would try to hook him up with different ladies they would cross paths with. The day before meeting with the scientist she was assigned to she was stuck at the apartment discussing plans with Rollins. That in itself was irritating because the two of them had nothing in common and he wasn't happy to be assign to her.

Rollins knew he was assigned to her for a reason but no one would tell him what it was. Rumlow had told him that Pierce said she was top priority in order for them to succeed at the mission they were dealing with. It made no sense to him to have her being a top priority considering she was just a level six agent and the scientist should have been guarded by a level seven or higher. Rumlow told him things would make plenty sense when the time comes, Pierce had assured him of it. So for the time being they had to do as they were told and stop questioning the motives.


	8. Chapter 8

It had been a month since Raylee started her new assignment, when they said she was going to be with him around the clock they didn't lie to her. Raylee only got time to herself when he was at the Triskelion labs where she didn't have clearance to be. On one of the days of her free time Raylee took a ride a little outside of DC and looked around at the apartments there. She knew she would eventually need a place of her own and she wanted one that wasn't tied to SHIELD and they knew nothing about, a safe house of her own off the grid.

Raylee ended up finding a perfect little studio apartment and rented it under an alias that no one knew except Tony because she had used it with him a couple of times. It took a few months for her to furnish it with simple things and also give it a few hidden spots to hide things that didn't need to be found. Once it was together and she stocked it with all the necessary things like ammo, money, weapons and food that would not go bad Raylee stopped going around it to keep it off the grid.

Five months into her assignment Raylee was beginning to enjoy having a steady day to day assignment and her lunches with Steve were a great distraction. She had just got done having lunch with Steve when they crossed paths with Natasha for the first time since the trio were split up. "Ray." Natasha said smiling as she walked up to Steve and Raylee.

"Hey Nat." Raylee said smiling back. "I didn't know you were around."

"I got a few things to handle before I leave on another mission." Natasha said as she glanced between the two in front of her. "Cap."

"Natasha." He said with a smile. "Ray, I'll give you a call later." He said smiling at her then nodded at Natasha as he walked away.

"Ray what is going on?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing." Raylee said shaking her head as she began walking and Natasha followed her. "Steve and I hang out when we both have time."

"You got that look in your eye and I know that look."

Raylee sucked in a deep breath and slowly released it. "Nat really… you did this with Clint and it was nothing, don't start it with Steve."

"What has happened with you and Clint?"

"Clint and I are just friends and it will never be more than that and the same goes for me and Steve."

"Have you heard from him?" she asked.

"No, I tried to call but I guess he'll call me when he is ready to talk."

"Alright." Natasha said knowing it was a bit touchy with both of them. "So how has it gone with you and this scientist?"

"That old man does nothing but work in the labs here all day then reads all night." Raylee said shaking her head. "I'm bored as hell and my babysitter drives me nuts when he is around but I'm getting used to it."

"Your babysitter?!" she said in a shock voice. Raylee sucked in another deep breath before going into the story of Rollins again. "I can't believe Fury would allow that." Natasha said shaking her head.

"Well he did and I'm over it now." Raylee said shrugging her shoulders. "The upside… my scientist is still alive and I just got seven months at best left with him then I take him back to Germany."

"What are you going to do afterwards?"

Raylee shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know… I was thinking of maybe sticking around here for a while."

"Why?" Natasha asked in shock.

"I kind of like having a steady place around me." Raylee said with a small smile but that didn't ease Natasha's mind. "Nat you and Clint have this whole Avengers thing going for you and I don't need to be the third wheel."

"You're not a third wheel with us, you are my partner as much as Clint is."

"Alexander Pierce said that I could be a great asset here and with the right amount of training I could join the STRIKE team so I'm thinking about doing that."

"Just think things through before you decide." Nat said patting her shoulder. "I gotta go but call me sometime and we'll get together."

"It would be easier if you just call me when you're in town." Raylee said smiling as they parted ways.

Raylee went to the labs to retrieve the scientist and was shocked to see Rollins leaning against the wall waiting for her when she got off the elevator. She smiled at him and started walking towards the door to signal the guard she was there for him. Rollins followed closely behind her with a smile on his face.

"So did the Black Widow try and talk you out of joining STRIKE?" he asked and Raylee glanced over at him wondering how he knew.

"How did you know about our conversation?"

"One of the guys from the team was nearby when you two were talking." He said shrugging.

"No she didn't and I told Rumlow I had to think about it so things are not final just yet." Raylee said as the scientist walked out. "Are you ready Dr. Finzel?"

"Yes, Agent Matthews." He said while he walked pass her to the elevator.

"Our guest doesn't seem to enjoy your company, Agent Matthews." Rollins said with a smirk on his face.

"I'm there to keep him safe and alive not make friends." Raylee said as they walked up behind the man.

As the next few months went by Raylee spent more and more of it with Rollins and some of the guys from STRIKE team training just in case she had decided to join the team. Even though Rollins was arrogant and egotistical she did like his training tactics and the things they taught her. There were many times he got the best of her but there were a few times she bested him and he was not happy about it but Rumlow enjoyed it. Between the training she received from the STRIKE team coupled with what she learned for Natasha and Clint made her feel like she could take on the world.

Lunch with Steve became routine for them, they meet at least once a week or more if they could to have lunch and to explore the city when she was able to do so. He was happy she was beginning to find a way to fit in with the agents in DC but he told her to always stay true to herself in the process. Their lunches had taken on a whole new level and he was now more like a mentor she looked up to. Fury actually like how close she had gotten with Steve more than her closeness with Tony.

When word reached Raylee that Tony and Pepper got into some trouble she was mad that SHIELD wouldn't let her go help. When she tried contacting Tony without their permission she never got through to him. The excuse they gave her about not being able to help was that after the New York incident SHIELD needed to be off the grid for a while and she needed to see her current assignment through to the end. Rumlow was nice enough to keep her posted on what was going on and was the first to call her when everything was cleared up with Tony. Once she received that news Raylee called Tony the first chance she got.

The year long babysitting assignment was finally coming to an end and it was time for Raylee to get the scientist back to Germany. She was surprised that Rollins wasn't taking the trip with her but instead they were sending two other agents in his place of him. After being briefed on where they were flying into and how she had to get him safely back to the labs out there they were on their way.

The quinjet landed at one of the secret SHIELD bases about a couple of hours from where she had to take the scientist. When they got off the quinjet a black SUV was waiting for them to transport the scientist in. The two agents climbed in front and Raylee got in back with the scientist. The ride to the lab was quiet, the three agents stood quiet watching the surroundings and the scientist sat there reading a book he had.

Taking unmarked roads was the only way they figured was quicker to get to the labs and back to the base. Raylee watched as the road went by her, some of it was wide open fields that seemed to go for miles and some were in very dense wooded areas. She did her best to keep her eyes on everything around them just like the agent that sat in the front passenger seat. Neither of them had liked the option that was given to them but they didn't question their orders.

The silence in the SUV was broken about an hour into their ride when a single gunshot rang out killing the agent that was driving. Raylee quickly pulled her gun out as she pulled the scientist down and covered him. Something was very wrong and she knew it, no bullet should have penetrated the SUV with a single shot, it should have taken a hell of lot more. Raylee knew all the SHIELD vehicles were heavily armored and it took a lot more than that to kill any of them. The other agent with her was trying to gain control of the SUV from the passenger side but they slammed into a tree before he could. At the rate of speed they were traveling caused Raylee's body to slam into the seats in front of her. She groaned in pain as she glanced up at the other agent that was alive and he looked like he was barely breathing.

Raylee looked out the side window to see a shadowy figure advancing on the right side of the vehicle. She quickly looked to her left and saw nothing so she tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge so she kicked at it until the door open then she tried to pull the scientist out of it. When she exited the vehicle and turned she was met with a silver fist that she quickly avoided. The sound of metal crunching rang loud in her ear. Raylee looked up to only see a masked man making another attempt to hit her and she dropped to the ground avoiding the hit again. The only thing visible to her were his eyes, the cold, lifeless look in them was something she doesn't ever remember seeing in another person. Just by the look in his eyes Raylee knew there was a slim chance any of them would live this attack.

"Run!" she screamed at the scientist as she fired a shot at the guy but he deflected the bullet with his arm. Raylee looked up at him in shock when she heard the clink of metal and in that moment he launched his other fist into her jaw. After hearing her own bones break she only felt the pain from the hit for just a moment because she black out seconds later.

The pilots on the quinjet began to get worried when the agents didn't return within four hours like they had said they would. It wasn't like any agent to not get back promptly unless there was trouble. When they contacted the Triskelion they were told to return to DC if the agents didn't return in the next hour and they would send a search team out for them. Doing as they were told an hour later they departed Germany and went back to DC without Raylee and her team.

When Raylee's eyes opened again the sun was down and she was in a lot of pain. Knowing that her jaw was broken and talking was out of the question Raylee slowly climbed to her feet and stumble around to the other side of the SUV only to find the scientist lying dead on the ground. Sliding down to the ground and leaning back against the tire Raylee pulled her phone out of her pocket but got mad when she saw there was no signal. Out of anger Raylee hit her head back against the tire only causing herself more pain.

When she reached back into her pocket hoping to find something useful she realized that she had a location transmitter with her, Clint had given that to her years ago and told her if she was ever in trouble all she had to do was turn it on. That was a safety net the three of them had with each other and no one knew about it. Figuring this was as good as time as any to see if it really worked, Raylee flipped the switch on and let her eyes close again.

Natasha and Steve were sitting in Fury's office at the Triskelion both very upset to hear about Raylee's fate. They were told the tracking device in the vehicle was disabled and they couldn't find Raylee and the two agents she was with. Natasha stood up and began pacing the room out of anger, she knew something wasn't right, they claimed the vehicle was off the grid and more than likely the entire team was either rouge or dead. Just as she turned back to walk towards Fury and Steve Natasha's phone chirped, she pulled it out and her eyes went wide when she saw the distress signal.

"Ray isn't dead." Natasha said looking back up at them then she looked back down at her phone and hit the signal to bring up the location. "I have to go."

Steve quickly stood and blocked her path before she could leave while Fury stood there looking at her confused. "Natasha what is going on?" Steve asked in a calm voice.

"What do you know that we don't?" Fury asked walking over to them.

"I know where she is, Clint gave all of us this location transmitter." She said looking at him. "No one knows about it so no one else would turn that on but her."

"Let's go." Steve said gesturing for her to lead the way. "I'm going with."

"Not a word to anyone." Fury said sternly. "Get her to safety then call me on a secure line."

Natasha and Steve both nodded at him and quickly left, Fury aided them in securing a quinjet without questions on why they needed it. When she was starting up the jet Natasha's phone rang again, this time it was Clint calling. "Barton I'm heading towards her now do you want me to pick you up on my way?" she asked as she looked at Steve.

"What's going on?" he asked in a concern voice. "Why is Raylee sending a distress signal?"

"I don't know what happened yet but I do know she went missing eight hours ago and was presumed dead or a rogue agent."

"What the fuck was she doing Germany?"

"Escorting the scientist back there but something went wrong, am I picking you up?"

"No, I'm sure you can handle this… are you alone?" he asked in a calm voice.

"Cap is with me." She said in a confused voice. "Barton we are talking about Raylee… you're not coming with me?" she asked again as Steve looked over at her with a raised eyebrow.

"No… you and Cap got it." He said hanging up before she could respond to him.

Raylee's eyes opened again to see the morning dawn slowly lighting up the sky, she didn't realize that she had been out that long. She glanced around and nothing had changed, she was still leaning against the SUV and the dead bodies were all still there. Thinking the transmitter didn't work Raylee climbed to her feet again with all intentions of finding her own way to safety or at least until she had signal on her phone again. Just as she pushed off the SUV Raylee felt like everything was spinning. Not only was her jaw broken but she knew she was concussed pretty bad.

Leaning back against the SUV she closed her eyes in hopes the world would stop spinning long enough for her to move. Her eyes popped open when she heard a quinjet hovering close by, she looked up long enough to see Steve jumping down. Breathing a sigh of relief Raylee let her body slide back down to the ground as Steve ran towards her when his feet hit the ground.

"Ray." He called out as he got closer. "Ray, are you ok?" he asked squatting down in front of her as his eyes scanned her body for any visible injuries, the only injury that was visible to him was the large bruise that took up most of the left side of her face. Raylee shook her head no knowing that she couldn't verbally answer him. "What's wrong, where are you hurt?" slowly lifting her hand up, Raylee laid her hand softly over the left side of her jaw then lightly tapped the side of her head. "You can't talk?" Raylee slowly shook her head no. "Nat, I think her jaw is broke." He said into the ear com and Raylee nodded her head confirming what he thought.

"Cap, get her to the clearing we saw and we can get her out of here." Natasha said as she flew the jet to the clearing to land.

Steve lifted Raylee up slowly and glanced around to get some small knowledge of what looked to have happened before he began walking towards the clearing, she laid her head down on his shoulder and went to close her eyes again but he stopped her. "Raylee Matthews open your eyes and look at me." He said nudging her with his shoulder and she opened them. "You stay awake." He said sternly and she nodded her head. "I refuse to allow you to slip into another coma, you understand that?" she nodded her head and completely agreed with him.

Once at the clearing he moved faster towards the jet as the back hatch opened for them. When Steve board the jet the hatch closed as Natasha looked back at them. "How is she?"

"Broken jaw and possible concussion." He said as he laid her down and grabbed a blanket to wrap around her. "Hospital or safe house?" he asked looking over at Natasha.

"I radioed Fury he has a connection that we can trust meeting us at the safe place." Natasha said as she turned back to the controls.

Raylee grabbed Steve's hand as he got up to walk away and he looked down at her. She used her other hand and used sign language to thank him and he smiled down at her. "No need to thank me, I told you before we're friends." He said smiling down at her.

Raylee tried to smile back but it hurt, he squeezed her hand one more time then laid it flat on her stomach as he went to go help Natasha pilot the plane. Whenever she felt her eyes closing one of the two would snap at her to keep them open. She had wished she could tell them that she did sleep for two long periods of time before they got there but a broken jaw kept her from being able to do that.

Natasha landed the quinjet in a field to let Steve and Raylee out then she flew it over to an airbase knowing it could be tracked. Once she left the airbase on foot Natasha stole a vehicle and went to retrieve the other two. When they weren't far from the safe zone Fury told her to go to they ditched the stolen vehicle and made the rest of the way by foot. Raylee held on tightly to Steve as she walked next him, everyone knew they would raise red flags if he was carrying her.

When they got to the building Natasha went through the back to scope the place out while Steve took Raylee to a bench across the street and sat there with her. Natasha came out the front a few minutes later and waved them in. Steve and Raylee noticed the inside had looked like a clinic of some kind and the doctor in there quickly took her away.

Steve and Natasha sat outside the doors he took her through and waited for him to come back out. After taking x-rays and seeing that her jaw was broken in multiple places he knew he had to do surgery. Steve patiently waited next to the doors again while Natasha paced the length of the hall. The doctor came out after he was done and explained he place a metal plate on her jaw and she need a couple months of recovery time. Natasha walked away to contact Fury and give him an update while Steve went in to see her.

Raylee was still out but he sat down next to her and a few minutes later Natasha came back in and sat in the chair on the other side. The two of them sat there waiting for to wake up again, they both knew it was going to be a long night and neither planned on sleeping until her eyes opened so they got comfortable.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning Raylee groaned as she opened her eyes and saw both Steve and Natasha still sitting there. Natasha smiled softly at Raylee as she stood up and went to get the doctor. Steve leaned forward and squeezed Raylee's hand. Raylee didn't bother trying to talk she knew exactly what was wrong and trying would only cause more unwanted pain. The doctor came in moments later and checked all her vitals then explain that in a few days once all the swelling went down she would be able to talk just a very little if necessary.

Natasha thanked the doctor for all his help then her and Steve got Raylee up and they were on the move again. This time Steve was just helping get Raylee to the next safe house then he was returning back to DC. They didn't want anyone knowing she was alive just yet, Fury wanted Raylee to recover before anyone knew. He wanted the whole story of what happened to her before anyone else at SHIELD had time to question her.

Within a few days rumors began to spread through SHIELD that Raylee had gone rogue. The bodies of the other two agents and the scientist were recovered and because she wasn't there the rumors began. Fury knew he had to clear her name so he went straight to Alexander Pierce in hopes he would help and understand.

"What can I do for you Nick?" Pierce asked looking up from his paper work.

"It's about Raylee." Fury said coming to a stop in front of the desk.

"Nick I know you find it hard to believe that your niece would go rogue on SHIELD but what are we to think."

"Pierce we both know Raylee would never go rogue and turn on the only family she knows." Fury said shaking his head as he tried to control his anger. "I know for a fact she didn't go rogue."

"How is that?"

"Because Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff recovered her from Germany and she has been with Agent Romanoff this whole time." Fury said leaning forward on the desk. "She was in bad shape and needed medical attention."

"Why didn't they notify anyone here?" Pierce asked as he sat back in his chair. "How did she get medical attention and we not know?"

"I kept my niece off the grid because I didn't know who killed the others and I didn't know if whoever it was would come back to finish her off."

"Nick, I know how hard this is for you." Pierce said in a calm voice. "I was there when you promised Sandra you would keep Raylee safe but she is a level six agent and danger comes with the job."

"I know very well how dangerous this job is and so does Raylee. I would protect all of my agents the same way." Fury said standing straight again as he felt insulted by Pierce sinuating that he was giving Raylee special treatment. "She sustained a broken jaw and concussion in the attack, Agent Matthews had surgery to repair her jaw and is recovering."

"I will send the STRIKE team to Germany to escort both agents safely back to the states." Pierce said as Fury nodded at him and walked away.

Pierce sat there breathing deeply to calm his nerves, he was damn happy to hear Raylee wasn't gone. When he got the mission report from the Asset he was pleased to hear she wasn't dead. Even though the asset was a good soldier he was still a loose cannon and could have easily killed her if he wanted or felt like she was a threat to him. His need for Raylee was far from over and losing his only hold over Fury would have been bad. Now he needed to know what she saw and thought about the attack. No one needed to have knowledge of the Asset and if she knew he needed to clean this up.

Once Fury was gone Rumlow walked into the office. "Agent Matthews is alive and in Germany." Pierce said looking over at him.

"The Asset has been prepped and done already, I don't think we could reverse it so soon." Rumlow said as he glanced around making sure they were alone.

"I don't want her dead." Pierce said shaking his head. "I need her alive until she is no longer of any use to us."

"What did you need me to do?"

"Take the STRIKE team and bring her safely back, we need to see what kind of information she knows."

"If she knows?" Rumlow asked raising his eyebrow.

"Make her think it was all in her head." Pierce said sternly and Rumlow nodded then walked away.

Fury contacted Natasha the minute he was able to get a secure line to her. He didn't want the safe house burned so he wanted her and Raylee to leave it before the STRIKE team departed DC. Once Natasha hung up with Fury she looked over at Raylee who had been sleeping. Healing was coming along but it wasn't quick enough to get her to talk before having to leave. She had been hoping to have at least a week until they had to leave, shaking her head she walked over and tapped Raylee's shoulder.

"Ray, we have to go." Natasha said as Raylee opened her eyes and looked up at her. "Fury called, SHIELD knows you're alive and they are sending the STRIKE team to get us." Raylee nodded as she sat up to get ready.

The two of them were out of the safe house and on their way to the SHIELD base within the matter of minutes. Raylee hated the fact that moving her jaw still hurt and she was like a mute. Communicating her needs with just anyone would have been hell but with Natasha it was easy because they knew each other well. When they reached the base completely undetected the guards standing there were a bit wary of Raylee because of the rumors. Natasha had informed her about the rumors and Raylee shook her head, she felt like if anyone should be nervous it should have been her. After all it was one of their improperly equipped vehicles that she was traveling in when her team was attacked and killed.

When the STRIKE team arrived they came into the compound where Natasha and Raylee were waiting on them. "Agent Romanoff." Rumlow said nodding his head at her as he walked to stand in front Raylee. "Agent Matthews, how are you doing?"

Raylee shrugged her shoulders at him and Natasha decided to be verbal for her. "She can't talk yet, the swelling has to go completely down first, it may be a few more days." She said as she stood up and Raylee had done the same. "Agent Matthews had a metal plate inserted to fuse the bones together again."

"Wow… that must have been some hit you took." Rollins said shaking his head at her and Raylee just shrugged her shoulders. "Definitely STRIKE material if it were my choice."

"Other than the jaw is her physical condition still where it should be?" Rumlow asked glancing at Natasha then back a Raylee.

"Of course." Natasha said as she began walking towards the exit. "Gentlemen we should get out of here now." Rumlow nodded as he gestured for Raylee to walk ahead of him, she nodded and walked away.

On the way back to DC Natasha and Raylee both stood quiet while watching as the guys had quiet conversations among themselves. Raylee watched everyone around her with calculated eyes, after the attack she was wary of everyone around her. That attack felt like it had been setup because who would have known the roads they were taking if they were all unmarked. Someone inside of SHIELD had given their location and she wanted to know who tried to have her killed and why.

Natasha hated that she didn't get enough time with Raylee to find out what happened and how did the SUV get damaged so easily. Steve told her that as he picked Raylee up he glanced around the surroundings to survey the damage. He noticed the two dead agents inside the vehicle and the scientist that was dead outside the vehicle. There was one slug to the head of the scientist and one slug put in both of the other agents. The passenger would have died from his injuries but whoever attacked them made sure he was dead. It made no sense to her why everyone had been shot dead but Raylee was left breathing.

When they finally arrived back at headquarters Raylee was quickly taken away to see a doctor and Fury followed her. He kept a straight face not showing his concern but inside he was beyond relieved to see his niece alive. Fury and Natasha stood off to the side of them and watched the doctor examine her. Other than the fact that she still couldn't talk her health was completely fine, once Rumlow was updated he went to let Pierce know.

When the doctor walked out Fury walked over to Raylee. "Do you know who attacked you?" he asked and she shook her head no as she glanced over at Natasha. Fury glanced back Natasha himself when he noticed her eyes had left his. "Do you know?" he asked her.

"No." Natasha said sounding confused. "Ray… what's going on?" she asked as Fury turned back.

Raylee shook her head feeling frustrated that she couldn't talk and tell them that she thinks the ghost… the Winter Soldier was the one that attacked her. She tried to mumble the words but it came out sounding like gibberish and they both looked at her confused. Closing her eyes for a moment to get her bearings back together she took two deep breaths knowing she was about to cause herself some pain.

"Winter Soldier." She said quickly and grimaced in pain as they both looked at her with wide eyes.

Natasha was stunned quiet and Fury was shaking his head. "That's impossible." Fury said shaking his head as he glanced at Natasha then back at Raylee. "That concussion must have been worse than we thought." Fury said walking away, he didn't and couldn't believe that his niece would survive an attack by a ghost no one has ever seen other than her own partner.

Natasha on the other hand believed Raylee the minute those two words came out her mouth. She watched Fury leave the room then looked back at Raylee. "Why did he leave you alive?" she asked and Raylee shrugged her shoulders. "What did he look like?" Raylee shook her head and pointed at her eyes. "You only saw his eyes?" she asked and Raylee nodded. "I have to go back to Germany and see if I can find him, you keep your eyes open and stay safe." Natasha said and Raylee nodded.

When the doctor released Raylee she was escorted back to the apartment they had set up for the scientist but this time around she was the assignment. Raylee was under twenty four hour watch and Rollins and Rumlow were her new roommates until told otherwise. She hated that she was assigned to them but with Natasha going to Germany and Steve still running leads on O'Dell she wasn't given any other choice.

As the days went by Raylee was slowly beginning to be able to communicate. The guys had seemed happy she was getting better and once the doctor said she was just about healed they took her back to their area in the Triskelion. Raylee wasn't exactly sure why she was told to follow them but she did so she could find out what they wanted. Rumlow sat a desk and she sat across from him as he questioned her on the attack. He seemed intrigued by the great memory she had of the whole thing and didn't say anything until she described the lone attacker.

"Agent Matthews you want me to believe that you were attacked by the Winter Soldier?" he asked shaking his head at her and Rollins laughed.

"You want us to believe that one man… a ghost crashed the vehicle, took out two agents and the man you were protecting but left you alive?" Rollins asked and she glared at him.

"I know what I saw." Raylee snapped at him. "He had a metal arm and deflected my close range shot on him."

"I suggest you keep that to yourself." Rumlow said shaking his head and Raylee looked back at him. "Rumors will spread around here saying you're out of your mind."

"Like you two are thinking right now?" Raylee asked and Rollins chuckled while Rumlow glared at him. "I know how most of the intelligence community doesn't believe this man exist but he does."

"Raylee, I want you on my team." Rumlow said leaning forward on the desk. "But if you keep talking about this Pierce and Director Fury is going to think you are unstable and it won't happen."

"I understand." Raylee said nodding her head.

"Do you think you are ready for some tactical field work?" he asked sitting back again and she nodded. "Good be back her in three hours, we have a mission and want to see your field work."

"Yes sir." Raylee said getting up and left the room.

Rumlow watched as she left and waited until he knew she was far enough not to be able to hear him before turning towards Rollins. "Make sure you keep her thinking she is crazy for thinking the asset attacked her." He said sternly. "I don't want anyone even trying to believe that girl's story."

"Why are we bringing her on STRIKE if we aren't going to trust her?"

"I want her to trust us… there is something Pierce knows about her and if he has use for her then we should use this to our advantage." Rumlow said with a smirk. "We make SHIELD agents think she's crazy then turn her against them. With that we could have our own asset within the Avengers. I don't want anyone other than us two to know about my agenda."

"Do you think we can pull this off without Captain Rogers and the Black Widow interfering?" Rollins asked as he sat in the chair she vacated.

"Yeah, one partner already lost her trust and it will be a matter of time before we get the other to do the same."

"And Cap?"

"I'll get him to get her to trust us before I turn her against him also."

Raylee walked out the building but didn't leave the area, she walked over to the side of the building and just leaned back. Her thoughts were all over the place and she couldn't think straight. Raylee knew what she saw and they made her second guess her own sanity. When she closed her eyes the first thing she saw was those cold, lifeless blue eyes staring back at her. Feeling a chill run through her body Raylee shivered but she was scared more when a hand came down on her shoulder. She quickly pulled her gun and aimed it as her eyes opened. She felt even worse when she saw Steve back away and pulled his shield to cover his body.

"Ray?" he said in a questioning voice.

"I'm so sorry." Raylee said letting her hand drop to her side.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he placed his shield back away, Raylee just shrugged her shoulders and looked confused. "I'm going to go change, meet me by my motorcycle."

Steve didn't give her a chance to respond or refuse he just walked away from her. Raylee sucked in a few deep breaths to slow her heartrate back down, she knew those blue eyes were going to haunt her for the rest of her life. Raylee walked to the garage and waited next to Steve's motorcycle like he told her to do. When he came walking up to her Steve had a small smile on his face as he placed the shield on the front of the motorcycle.

"Let's take a ride." He said getting on and patted the seat behind him.

Raylee nodded as she climbed on and wrapped her arms around him. Steve started the motorcycle and seconds later they were riding away. The rumble of the motorcycle and wind whipping through her hair felt surprisingly relaxing. Raylee laid her head down on his back and closed her eyes, her nerves were relaxing and her heartrate was back to a normal beat. After what felt like an hour of just riding Steve pulled over and parked. Raylee lifted her head as he glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled.

"Better?" he asked and she nodded at him as she slid off and he did the same. "It always helps clear the head."

"Thank you." Raylee said softly as she glanced around the park he stopped at. "I'm sorry about what happened back there."

"No need to apologize." Steve said shaking his head. "You got a lot on your mind and I should have said something before touching you."

"Can I ask you something?" she asked and he nodded as he led her over to a bench. "Have you ever felt like you were alone?"

Steve sat there a moment thinking about what she asked and the only memory he had of feeling that way ended with his best friend telling him he wasn't. Steve looked up at Raylee as he placed his hand on hers. "Yeah but I had a friend let me know I wasn't." he said with a small smile.

"I know I could get by on my own…" she began to say.

Steve felt like he was experiencing an out of body moment, he had said those same words to Bucky. Feeling the need to complete the experience he stopped her before she could continue. "The thing is… you don't have to." Steve said softly as she looked over at him. "I'm with you to the end of the line."

"You seem to always know what to say." Raylee said with a smile.

"Actually I borrowed that one from my friend." Steve said smiling at her. "When I buried my mother I felt like I had no one and my friend Bucky said those exact words to me. He meant it when he said it to me and I meant it when I said it to you."

"Sounds like a good friend." Raylee said with a smile.

"He was, are you ready to go back?"

"Can I ask you one more thing?" she asked and he nodded again. "The STRIKE team… can I trust them?"

"From what I have seen, yes." Steve said nodding at her. "Rumlow told me about the offer he gave you. Is this what you want?"

"I wasn't sure." Raylee said shrugging her shoulders. "But I think I should give it a shot."

"Just remember what I said about staying true to yourself." Steve said smiling at her.

Raylee nodded her head and sucked in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. "I'm ready to go back now." She said standing up and he did the same.

"You ever need to clear your head call me and we'll take another ride."

"Sounds good." Raylee said smiling at him as they walked back to the motorcycle. "I would love to hear some more stories about Bucky."

"On our next lunch I'll tell you everything I know about James Buchannan Barnes." He said climbing on the motorcycle.

Raylee stopped for a moment in surprise when he said Bucky's name to her. It was like fate stepped in, his best friend's surname was the same one she had used a few times. Steve looked over at her and raised his eyebrow but she just shook her head and climbed on behind him. She didn't want to explain things to him and preferred keeping that little bit of information to herself for the time being.


	10. Chapter 10

Over the next year Raylee worked closely with the STRIKE team, they had occupied a lot of her time. She had gone on a few missions she had clearance for and trained with Rollins and couple of the other guys when they were around. The other SHIELD agents began to find out about Raylee's claim of being attacked by the Winter Soldier. She had no idea that Rollins had been the one to start spreading it but she felt the repercussions of his action.

A lot of the agents had mocked her to the point that she kept her distance from most because of it. Rumlow had been happy that his plan was working well and the more the SHIELD agents pissed her off the happier he got. Her trust in SHIELD was becoming nonexistent, the only three ties he was having a hard time severing was with the Black Widow, Captain Rogers and Director Fury. Rumlow had started interrupting her lunches with Steve in an attempt to put distance between them.

"Ray we got a situation and all hands are on deck." Rollins said walking up to Raylee as she worked out in the gym.

"Alright." She said stopping the machine she was on and grabbed a towel to wipe her sweat. "How long do I have?"

"Twenty then we are taking off." He said walking away and she nodded.

Fifteen minutes later Raylee was walking down the hall with the STRIKE team to the jet in full tactical gear while Rumlow updated her on the situation. They loaded on and began preparing for takeoff when Steve and Natasha came aboard. Steve glanced around at everyone and his eyes stopped on Raylee as she stood there talking with Rollins and another agent. Rumlow watched as Steve stood looking at her and he decided to punch the knife in a little deeper.

"Ray you're with me today." He said walking up behind Steve and she glanced up, locking eyes with Steve for a moment before looking at Rumlow. "Where I go you go."

"Got it." She said nodding at him then looked back at Steve and Natasha but before she could say anything to them Rumlow got everyone's attention on him.

"Target is a mobile satellite launch platform, the Lemurian Star." Rumlow said as he tapped at the screen pulling up different images. "They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them, ninety three minutes ago."

"How many pirates?" Steve asked.

"Twenty five top mercs led by this guy… Georges Batroc." Rumlow said as he looked over at Raylee to give the intel and she nodded at him as she stepped to his side.

"Ex-DGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice." She said looking between Steve and Natasha. "Before the French demobilized him he had 36 kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."

"Hostages?" Steve asked looking between Raylee and Rumlow.

"Mostly techs, one officer… Jasper Sitwell." Rumlow said.

"They're in the galley." Raylee said as Steve looked back at her.

"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Steve asked and no one answered him. "Any demands?"

"Billion and a half." Rumlow answered.

"Why so steep?" Steve asked looking between Raylee and Rumlow wondering who was going to answer him this time.

"Because it's SHIELD's." Rumlow said answering him.

"So it's not off course. It's trespassing." Steve said shaking his head.

"I'm sure they have a good reason." Natasha said glancing at him.

"You know, I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor." Steve said sounding agitated.

"Relax, it's not that complicated." Natasha said calmly.

"All right, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc." He said adjusting his gear. "Nat, you kill the engines and wait for instructions. Rumlow, you sweep left, find the hostages, get them to the life-pods, get them out. Let's move."

"STRIKE, you heard the Cap… gear up." Rumlow called out and everyone did as they were told.

As Natasha talked to Steve he looked over at Raylee but Rumlow had her attention on him as he spoke to her in a low voice. Their lunch date the last few weeks had been canceled because Raylee was too busy and he wanted to see how she was doing. The last time he spoke to her she was upset about things that were being said about her around SHIELD. He tuned himself back to Natasha's conversation when he saw Raylee look up at him and smile softly at him.

"Coming up on the drop zone, Cap." The pilot said into the ear com.

Raylee smiled again when Steve jumped out the hatch and Rollins looked stunned. "Was he wearing a parachute?" Rollins asked in a shock voice.

"No… no he wasn't." Rumlow said smirking and Raylee laughed.

They all jumped out and parachuted down to the ship as they watched Steve clear the deck all by himself. Raylee shook her head and mumbled show off as she floated down next to Rumlow. When he was down to the last guy Raylee saw he pulled a gun on Steve and Steve froze. Rumlow looked over at Raylee and smiled as he lifted his gun and pulled the trigger taking the guy out.

"Thanks." Steve said turning to look at Rumlow.

"Yeah, you seemed pretty helpless without me." Rumlow said smirking at him.

Raylee parted ways with the STRIKE team as Natasha and Steve went their own way. It felt weird for her to be on a mission with Natasha but yet not be by her side. If felt wrong and it had Raylee second guessing if she had made the right decision about being part of STRIKE. When Rumlow, Rollins and Raylee reached the galley she stepped to one side of Rollins while Rumlow stood on the other side.

"Targets acquired." Steve said into the ear com.

"STRIKE in position." Rumlow said next.

"Natasha, what's your status?" Steve asked and everyone waited for an answer but got silence instead. "Status, Natasha."

"Hang on!" she called and Rumlow looked over at Raylee with a raised eyebrow and she just shrugged knowing Natasha was in the process of clearing her area still. "Engine room secure." She called out and Raylee smirked.

"On my mark." Steve said and Rumlow nodded at Rollins. "Three... two... one."

Simultaneously they all hit their marks, Raylee rushed the room with Rumlow and Rollins clearing it quickly. She cut all the binds and freed the hostages as Rumlow spoke with Sitwell. Once they made sure everyone was accounted for and alive they made their way to the rendezvous point. When they arrived there Rumlow looked around for Natasha but she wasn't there.

"Where the hell is Romanoff?" Rollins said looking around and they both looked over at Raylee.

"Where could she be?" Rumlow asked her.

"I have no idea." Raylee said shaking her head, Raylee had a feeling that Fury had other reasons for having Natasha on this mission so she knew she needed to cover for her friend. "Let's just get the hostages to the extraction point."

Rumlow nodded his head as they began moving. "Hostages en route to extraction." He said into the ear com. "Romanoff missed the rendezvous point, Cap. Hostiles are still in play."

Once the hostages were free they were on their way back to headquarters, Natasha sat there quiet while Steve looked upset. Raylee sat across from them and wondered what exactly happened between them but knew better than to ask while others were around. When they landed Raylee went with the rest of the STRIKE team to get debriefed while Steve and Natasha went their own ways. It had been a very long night and everyone was exhausted.

After changing back into her street clothes Raylee was walking back towards the team when Steve stepped in front of her. "Hey Steve." She said with a smile and he nodded at her.

"Do you got time for a ride?" he asked in a low voice.

"Um… yeah I do." Raylee said with smile and he finally smiled back at her. "I'm just going to let them know I'm taking off." Steve nodded as Raylee jogged pass him and slipped her head in one of the doors. "Brock, I'm going to take off."

"Alright Ray, we're done for the day anyways." He said smirking at her. "Get some rest I think the rest of the week is going to be a rough one."

Raylee nodded her head and went back over by Steve and followed him out to his motorcycle. She climbed on behind him and they just rode away, it was relaxing after a long night. After sometime of just enjoying the wind Steve stopped near the Smithsonian and when he shut the motorcycle off he glanced over his shoulder at Raylee.

"Would you like to join me inside?" he asked softly as he nodded towards the building.

"I'd love to join you." Raylee said as she slid off and waited for him to get off also. "I've been wanting to come check it out."

Steve and Raylee walked towards the exhibit and he had tensed up slightly as they entered. Different videos could be heard telling stories as they walked through. One little boy noticed Steve and stood staring in shock. Raylee smiled at how adorable the kid looked and Steve lifted his finger to his mouth asking the kid to stay quiet and the kid slowly nodded at him. When they came to a stop in front of the memorial wall of Steve's best friend they both stopped walking.

Raylee stood silent next to him as he stared at the wall with his friend's picture etched on the glass. When she felt he bottled it up long enough Raylee decided to get him to open up to her. She eased him into talking to her and once he started Raylee got to see a whole other side of him. The stories he told her were amazing and when they went to see the video in the theater room he became a little more talkative with her. In the short time they were there she felt she knew Bucky Barnes as well as Steve did.

When they finally arrived back at her place Steve climbed off the motorcycle to properly say goodbye. They hugged each other and when she pulled back Steve looked down at her with a serious look on his face. "Ray, be careful."

"I always am." Raylee said with a small smile. "Let's do lunch tomorrow."

"Ok." He said smiling at her as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Call me around noon." Raylee nodded at him and walked away.

After making herself a small dinner Raylee decided to get some much needed sleep. The night before was long and rather than getting sleep when they returned she went out with Steve. About an hour after her head hit the pillow her phone was ringing and someone was banging on front door at the same time. She looked between where her phone was sitting on her dresser and her bedroom door. Shaking her head Raylee grabbed her gun and went to the front door. When she looked out the peephole she saw Rollins getting ready to put his fist to the door again.

She quickly opened the door and he looked at her in shock. "Ray get dressed."

"Why… what is going on?" she asked in a concern voice.

"Director Fury has been attacked and he is in the hospital."

"Oh my god." Raylee said running to her room and just slid shoes on and grabbed a sweater, opting to stay in her yoga pants. "What happened?"

"I don't have the details, Rumlow said to come get you and we should all be there."

By the time they arrived at the hospital it was too late, Rumlow walked up to Raylee as Steve and Natasha came out a room. "Ray they did everything they could but he didn't make it." Rumlow said in a low voice, he could she was upset and he still needed her so he decided to comfort her. "I know you worked closely with Fury for years… I'm sorry." He said pulling her into a hug.

Rumlow passed her over to Rollins and communicated silently for him to play along while he collected Captain Rogers. Raylee was too stunned to comprehend anything other than the fact she was just told her uncle died and they didn't even know he was her uncle. He was all she had left of family and now she truly felt alone. When Steve joined them he noticed Rollins walking with Raylee tucked into his side. He was about to go to her but Rumlow ran interference knowing that this was his chance to drive the wedge between the two of them.

Once they were back at the Triskelion Rollins took Raylee to their area to clean up and get changed while Steve went to talk with Pierce. It wasn't too long later that they were convincing Raylee that Steve knew something about the attack and refused to tell them. She was already emotionally unstable and their talks didn't take long to set in. When they told her about needing to apprehend him she wanted to help because she needed answers he apparently knew and refused to tell.

When she stepped on the elevator with Rollins and a few other guys Steve was in shock. He had already figured out there was a problem and couldn't believe Raylee was siding with them. "Before we get started… does anyone want to get out?" he asked calmly as he glanced at Raylee but she wouldn't look at him.

Rollins was the first to attack and everything went by so fast, Raylee slammed her fist into the emergency stop bringing the elevator to a stop. She was knocked back by a couple of the guys when Steve was swinging around defending himself. When she got her bearings she went to advance on Steve but he swept her legs out from under her and she fell to the floor. In the process of falling to the floor Raylee kicked up at his hand causing it to magnetize to the metal bracket above him.

In such small confines it was hard to keep from hitting her and a few times Steve connected with Raylee but she didn't give up. He ended up landing an unfortunate kick to the side of her head knocking her out of the fight. Steve couldn't understand why she had sided with them and fight him like that. Once Rumlow was out cold Steve looked down at Raylee as she laid there unconscious, he bent down and slid the hair that covered her face out of the way.

"One day you'll let me explain." He said to her as he stood up and turned towards the door. "I'll make sure of it."

When Raylee began to wake up again she groaned in pain, her head felt like it had a jackhammer going crazy on it. She glanced around the infirmary and noticed the whole team was in there getting some kind of medical attention. She didn't even get enough time to react or ask questions when Rumlow stepped in front of her.

"This isn't over, we got a hit on where Rogers' location." He said looking down at her.

"I'm coming with." Raylee said sitting up and Rumlow nodded at her.

With a nod to his head the team was filing into the SUVs and were on their way to the mall in search of Steve. Raylee took point with Rumlow and scouted around as they walked through. The place was crowed and it wasn't ideal to take someone down in a place like this but they were given no choice. Rollins checked the source but came up empty so Rumlow called out the orders and they did another sweep of the place and still nothing.

Raylee had left all her mental training in the hospital where Nick died, she was moving on pure anger and hurt feelings. She knew Clint told her not to let her emotion cloud her judgement but even his words meant nothing to her at that moment. When the evening came around they were given another location but it also came up empty. As Raylee helped the guys comb through the wreckage she heard Rumlow call over the ear com that they needed to call in the asset. She had no idea what that was but she began to feel like things weren't right.

After catching an hour's worth of sleep at the Triskelion the team was given another hit but this time Rumlow made Raylee sit this out claiming she was too exhausted and needed to rest some more. The last few days had been extremely rough and she felt lost. Raylee spent the next couple of hours sitting then went down to the cafeteria and got a bite to eat. When she was down there she heard that there were rumors going around saying that the Winter Soldier was the one who killed Nick. After hearing that she went back to the STRIKE team's area to see if she could find anything out.

Raylee didn't leave the Triskelion for anything that night, when the team returned from looking for Steve she was told that Natasha was helping him. It was too much for her to take, Raylee couldn't understand why Nat wouldn't want to know the truth. The sun had risen and she laid on the couch in one of the offices with her eyes closed hoping to get a little more rest. Raylee began to fall asleep again but was woken up a little while later by few of the guys from the team.

"Matthews we need to go."

"Where?" she asked sitting up.

"Rumlow wants us to meet up with him now." He said with urgency and she nodded.

As they began to walk down the hall Steve's voice was suddenly on the P.A. system. It was hard for Raylee to hear the truth he was saying. She had aided in the hunt for him not knowing that she was aiding HYDRA the whole time. When he said the STRIKE team was HYDRA Raylee froze and the three men walking with her turned on her. Suddenly Raylee was fighting against them, none of them pulled their weapons and that confused her but she wasn't going to go down easy. When one of the guys kicked the side of her knee and she buckled to the ground Raylee pulled her gun and shot one of the guys. The other two tried to quickly pull their own guns but she shot each one before they could.

Raylee quickly got off the ground and despite the pain in her knee she pushed herself to get out of there. Not even realizing she was still in her STRIKE uniform until SHIELD agents fired on her, Raylee tried to escape from them without actually hurting anyone but it was becoming difficult. When she came upon an empty hall Raylee removed the STRIKE shirt she had on opting to just remain in her tank top and cargo pants.

Getting out of Triskelion was getting harder the closer she got to an exit. Agents from both sides were firing on her and she didn't know who to trust because she didn't know who was loyal to SHIELD and who was loyal to HYDRA. The only thought she had was to get out of there and get to her own safe house so she could pull herself together.

When Raylee exited the building she saw the three helicarriers firing upon each other. Raylee looked up in shock as two crashed into each before falling into the river and the third had looked like it was headed right for Triskelion. She was brought back from her shock when someone fired a shot at her just barely missing her head. Raylee looked over as she started to run to see three more STRIKE men chasing her. Raylee decided to run straight for the wooded area in hopes of losing the men or getting the cover she needed to take them out as she ran from them.


	11. Chapter 11

After shooting the last HYDRA agent that was running behind her, Raylee ran through the wooded area hoping to take cover within the trees. She had just watched as the three helicarriers went down, the last one crashing into the building she had just escaped from. Raylee felt lost and confused about what was going on, she had no idea the STRIKE team was rogue within SHIELD and she had been helping them this whole time making her look like she was HYDRA while the HYDRA agents knew she was SHIELD.

Her knee was killing her from the hit it took but she pushed herself to put more distance between her and any HYDRA agents that may be still looking for her. Raylee didn't know who she could trust anymore after her so called friends turned on her. She had been told that Steve and Natasha turned on SHIELD but Steve had said that the STRIKE team and carrier crews were HYRDA, a group that had been thought to be dismembered a long time ago.

When Raylee felt she was far enough from trouble to stop for a small break she came to a stop breathing hard and wincing in pain. Just as she was about to turn to survey her surroundings a metal hand took a hold of her throat from behind and pulled her back against his body. Raylee froze knowing there was no point in fighting because all it would take was one squeeze and he could kill her instantly. Their last meeting over a year ago was still fresh in her mind and she was lucky to barely make it out of there with her life. She slowly raised her hands in surrender with the gun still in her left hand. The cold metal hand around her throat squeezed a bit harder at the sight of the gun. It wasn't enough to kill her but enough to make her fear he would.

"Drop the gun!" the Winter Soldier said in a calm but cold voice. "Or I will kill you."

"I have no intentions of trying to fight you." Raylee said as calm as she could considering her life was literally in his hand.

She opened her hand and let the gun fall from it, he quickly pushed her away from his body and caught the gun before it hit the ground lifting it to aim it at her. Raylee stumbled forward and grunted from the pain that shot through her right knee from the movement. When she had her footing again she turned with a slight limp to see him holding the gun on her. Raylee took in his appearance and noticed the wet clothes and the fact he was holding his human arm against his body. Then it registered that her back was now wet and it wasn't from sweating.

"You're hurt." She said softly.

"I can still kill you." He said coldly.

"I know but you haven't and there is a reason for that." Raylee said as she limped closer and he raised the gun higher towards her head and she stopped instantly. "Look I'm hurt and have no means to fight the Winter Soldier and god knows I couldn't win." She said and he just stood there with no emotion on the small part of his face that she could see pass the hair. "If you let me go I can help you." She said hoping to reason with him. "Let me help you then we can go our own ways."

"We need to move, they're coming." He said as he quickly looked behind him.

Neither of them were even able to attempt to move when three agents came into sight. Raylee was unarmed because the Winter Soldier had her only gun and she knew running was no longer an option now that the pain had finally and fully set into her knee. When she heard them call him the asset she knew they were HYDRA and she thought she was screwed. It was the agents that were on his side and not on hers. When he shot one agent Raylee gasped in shock as the other agents began firing shots back at them.

The Winter Soldier knocked Raylee to the ground and ran at the other two agents because apparently she only had one shot left in the gun. Raylee was stunned that he had knock her down as he deflected one of the bullets off his metal arm before going after them. It was easy to see that he was in pain because he didn't use his right arm in the fight but that didn't matter or stop him. Once the two remaining agents were dead he came running towards Raylee and easily lifted her off the ground.

"More are coming, can you run?" he asked glancing back again as he tried to pull her along.

"I don't think so." Raylee said shaking her head as she tried to keep up with his pace while trying to pull her arm from the grip he had. "Just go... leave me."

"No!" he snapped at her as he yanked her forward and quickly wrapped his metal arm around her waist then practically carried her out of there.

Not a word was said between them as they ran but things quickly started to look bad when they came to a clearing only to see the Potomac River in front of them. They were no longer armed to defend themselves against anyone and they were both sure SHIELD was looking for him and HYDRA was looking for her. The Winter Soldier glanced at the river bank across from them trying to gage whether she would be able to make the swim. Raylee was surveying the area herself when she spotted an empty SHIELD speed boat not far from their location.

"Over there." Raylee said getting his attention as she pointed to it. "It looks empty but it shouldn't be that way for long so we need to hurry." He glanced at the boat then back at Raylee trying to decide if he should trust her. "You have no reason to trust me but you just saved my life back there and I'm trying to return the favor. You shot HYDRA agents so that means both HYDRA and SHIELD are coming for you."

"Let's go." He said as he once again practically carried her to the boat. Once on the boat Raylee limped over to the controls and he tried to stop her. "I'll drive."

"No, I will." She snapped at him. "You can't drive with just one arm, just get the guns out that locker." She said pointing at the locker.

Within minutes of being on the boat they were being shot at but it was SHIELD agents this time. Raylee was trying her hardest to get them out of there while bullets whizzed pass her head. She heard him firing back at them and once the boat started she was pulling away from the dock. Raylee heard a metal clink really close to her ear and it shocked her for a moment. She glanced over her shoulder to see that he had deflected another bullet that was meant for her head.

"Looks like SHIELD wants you dead." He said when the shots had finally stopped because they were out of range.

"Why did you save me?" Raylee asked glancing over at him and he glared at her. "You tried to kill me once before and you killed my uncle… I got you to the boat and you were free, you could have let that bullet hit me."

"When did I try to kill you?!" he snapped at her.

"Over a year ago… you killed the scientist I was assigned to protect." She said glaring at him for acting like he didn't remember breaking her jaw with one punch and leaving her in the middle of nowhere alone and injured.

"You're SHIELD… you're a threat!" he snapped lifting the gun again and aimed it at her. "Stop the boat and back away now. Where were you taking me?"

Raylee looked at him in shock as she stopped the boat and backed away from the controls with her hands up. "You knew I was a SHIELD agent." She said and he looked confused while shaking his head. "We can't stop here this boat has a tracker and they will find us."

"How do I know you're not trying to take me to a trap?"

"You said yourself they want me dead now too, they saw me helping you." Raylee said as she dropped her hands. "I have a safe house even SHIELD doesn't know about, I can take you to it." He looked like he was trying to weight his options and Raylee knew they didn't have much time. "If you're going to shoot me do it if not we need to go."

"Go." He snapped moving over so she could start the boat again.

Raylee knew she had to be cautious with him because he didn't seem to be in the right frame of mind. She knew he was a trained assassin for HYDRA and that alone was enough in her book to be insane but something else felt off about him. When they reached what she felt like was a safe point she stopped the boat as close to shore as she could get them. Raylee knew he would draw a lot of attention with his arm and they needed to stay under the radar in order to get away. Raylee grabbed one of the black coats that was in the boat and turned to face him.

"I don't want this to sound insensitive but you need to wear this." She said holding it out to him and he slowly grabbed it. "We need to stay off the grid but your arm will make that hard."

"Ok."

He was about to put it on but stop when he realized he couldn't move his right arm. Raylee noticed him looking down at his arm, knowing he couldn't move it. "I can help." She said taking the coat back from him and he slid his arm through it and she just laid it over his right shoulder. "We should go now."

"Can you walk?" he asked in a soft voice.

She was a bit taken back at the softness in his voice, she had come accustom to his cold demeanor in their very short time together. "I think I can make it, it's just about a mile from here."

After grabbing whatever guns they could hide out of sight the two climbed out of the boat and walked through a small wooded area coming out by a parking lot. He glanced at the cars and looked over at her when he began to walk over to one of them with the intentions of stealing it, she stopped him. Raylee quickly explain that a stolen car near where they were going would just raise red flags to both HYDRA and SHIELD. After getting him to agree they made the mile long trek to her safe house. The both of them had cautiously entered the small studio apartment and he made a quick sweep of the place as she locked the door and made sure all the curtains were closed.

"What happened to your arm?" she asked walking over to stand close but not too close to him. "I need to know what happened so I could help you."

"It's broken." He said looking up at her. "I need you to pop the bone back in place."

"It's going to hurt." She said as she watched him remove the coat. "You have to get that all off in order for me to do it." She said gesturing to what he was wearing.

The Winter Soldier unsnapped the holster that went around his chest but didn't remove it then he went to remove the one around his waist. Raylee stood there and watched as he laid it on the table then began to remove the few guns he had grabbed placing them next to the belt. He went to unbutton the leather when he reached the last snap his metal arm dropped to his side and he looked up at her.

They stood there a few moments quietly looking at each. He didn't have to voice what he needed. Raylee knew he couldn't remove the leather without jostling the arm and causing more pain or damage. She limped closer to him and he stepped back from her so she stopped moving giving him a chance to see she was just trying to help. After a few moments Raylee decided to remove all the weapons she had on herself hoping to ease his mind. When she laid the last gun down next to his she moved close enough to help him and he didn't protest this time.

He stood with his eyes locked on her as she placed her hands on his shoulders and began sliding the leather off. When her hand grazed the scarred skin from where the metal was fused to his skin she felt him twitch. Raylee tried to keep her breathing even so she wouldn't give him anymore reason then he needed to be nervous around her. Once his metal arm was free to move she let him take the rest of it off the other arm himself.

Raylee limped over to one of the cabinets and his eyes followed her every movement. She grabbed a medical wrap to wrap the arm in after she was done then walked back to him and placed it on the table. Raylee sucked in a deep breath and positioned herself to pop it in. When the bone popped back in place he grunted loudly as he quickly pulled away from her breathing heavy and both of his hands were balled into a tight fist. Raylee got nervous and quickly moved back a few feet to give him space, knowing he was in pain and things could turn bad for her quickly.

When his breathing evened out and both of his hands relaxed he turned to face her slowly while pushing his hair back from his face. This was the first time Raylee was ever getting a good look at him without the hair hanging in his face or the mask he wore the last time she saw him. He looked familiar but she couldn't figure out why or where she could have seen him before.

"Sit down." He said sternly to her as he pointed at the couch.

The soft voice from earlier was gone and the cold voice he used more often was back. The couch he pointed at was nowhere near the table loaded with their small arsenal that he clearly was standing in front of. Raylee wasn't sure of what to do, her knee was in pain and she wasn't in any shape to fight him but she didn't get this far to have him kill her now that she helped him. Raylee shook her head no as she tried to side step him to move closer to the weapons but he picked a gun up and had it pointed at her in the matter of seconds.

"What are you doing?" she asked trying to keep the fear from her voice.

"What is your name?" he asked ignoring her question.

"Raylee Matthews, I'm a… I was an agent for SHIELD."

"You're a level six." He said to her and she nodded at him. "I was told to kill two high level agents, a civilian helping them and one level six after I was done with the first three. You were my mission."

"Why… wait you said were?" Raylee asked in a shock voice.

"I never asked why, I just did what was told to me." He said ignoring her last comment. "Why are you a threat to HYDRA?"

"I don't know but if they wanted me dead why didn't you kill me when you had the chance a year ago?"

"I don't remember that." He said shaking his head and she noticed he looked confused again.

"You broke my damn jaw." She snapped at him and his jaw clinched as he glared at her. "No one believed me that it was you, they said I was delusional and said you were a ghost, they said I took one too many hits to the head."

"Did I do that?" he asked pointing at her face.

Raylee lifted her hand the movement caused him to grip the gun tighter but he realized she was just tracing the scar he questioned her about. "No, someone else did this." She said softly as she remembered Clint's arrow slicing her cheek open. "You honestly don't remember what you did to me?"

"My memories… I don't remember a lot." He said shaking his head.

"What did they do to you?" Raylee asked in a soft voice.

"Nothing!" he growled at her. "Sit down."

"No, I am not going to sit down." Raylee said shaking her head as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I am so tired of playing this game of cat and mouse, if you're going to kill me just get it over with already."

"I'm not going to kill you. If I wanted you dead you would not have made it this far." He said glaring at her and she was having a hard time believing him.

"Can you put the gun down then?" she asked and he made no move to lay it down. "If you're not putting that down then I'm not sitting down."

Raylee shifted her weight to relieve some of the pressure off her knee and he watched her with calculated eyes. Without saying a word he began walking towards her with the gun still aimed. Raylee began to get nervous so she took a couple of steps back. The Winter Soldier continued his advancement on her and with every step he made she made one of her own back. Once he saw that she was exactly where he wanted her he took a large step forward and quickly swept her good leg from under her and Raylee fell back onto the couch while letting out a squeal.

"You asshole." She snapped at him.

Once again without a word he turned around and walked back to the table finally placing the gun back down. Raylee watched as he lifted the medical wrap and wrapped his arm then he put the leather he had back on. His back was to her the whole time but she didn't bother trying anything stupid, there really was no point. Raylee adjusted herself into a more comfortable position when she realized it was going to be a long night.

Whenever she made a move he would glance at her over his shoulder then he would go back to putting his things on. When he was done he pulled one of the chairs away from the table and sat down facing her. He had positioned himself to be on defense, the weapons were to his back and easily accessible if he needed. Raylee was directly in front of him and the only door was to her left. There were a few well placed mirrors that made the blind spots of the place visible to him. The windows in the apartment were the only thing that made him nervous. Even though they were on the third floor it wouldn't stop any bullets from entering. Being this high up wouldn't have even kept him out if he needed to get in.

Raylee stood up and before she could even stand fully straight he was back on his feet with a gun in his hand. "I just need pain pills." Raylee said putting her hands up. "You have all the damn weapons behind you… you can relax."

He slowly sat down but didn't bother putting the gun away instead he just laid the gun on top of his leg still gripping it and watched as she limped to the bathroom. Raylee grabbed a bottle of pills out of the cabinet and ran the water to get a drink. When she lean forward to drink from the faucet she reached for the gun she stashed behind the toilet tank and quickly slid it in the waist of her pants then pulled her shirt over it. A few minutes later Raylee came back out and when she looked over at him she raised her eyebrow at the fact that he still had the gun in his hand.

"Make yours visible and I'll holster mine." He said in a calm knowing voice.

Raylee closed her eyes in defeat and slowly pulled the gun out as she sat down, she laid it on the cushion but still had it within arms reach then he holstered his own. "Do you have a name?" she asked as she got comfortable again and he shook his head no. "What do I call you then?" he just shrugged his shoulders. Raylee was getting irritated with the silent treatment he was now giving her.

The sun had set hours ago but they had still sat there watching each other silently in the dark. He watched as her body moved closer to the gun she had close by. He quickly stood on his feet with his own gun in hand but she didn't move. He stood there quiet listening that's when he realized her breathing was slow and even. Knowing that she fell asleep he glanced around the dark room as he holstered the gun again and spotted a blanket not far from where he was so he grabbed it and placed it over her.

When he went to step back the glint of the gun she had caught his eye and he reached his metal hand out for it but stop when his fingers grazed the gun. After sucking in a deep breath and slowly releasing it he stood up straight and walked back to his chair and sat down. He didn't know how long they would be safe there for or how long he would be safe with her. He knew he just needed some time to get his memories straight and his head clear before he could plan his next move.


	12. Chapter 12

Raylee started to stretch her tired sore body and that's when she realized she had fallen asleep. The events that happened the day before came rushing back to her mind and her eyes shot open. Still sitting in the chair and staring at her was the Winter Soldier. Her heart was pounding in her chest but she was thankful to still be alive. Raylee glanced down at the cushion next to her to see if he took her gun while she was sleeping and was surprise that it was still there. She looked back up at him and he was still watching her every movement like he had done the day before.

"How long do you think we will be safe here?" he asked as he rolled his neck cracking the stiff bones.

"At least a week, it could be longer but I don't know if that should be chanced." Raylee said as she flexed her knee.

"What happened to your knee?" he asked as he watched her wince in pain.

"The group I had been walking with attacked me and during the fight I was kicked on the side of it."

"Do you need medical attention for it?"

"I can't go anywhere and I'm not even sure who my friends are anymore or who I can trust."

"Why?"

"I don't know who sided with HYDRA and who sided with SHIELD." Raylee said as she sat forward. "Plus if any of those SHIELD agents back at the docks saw my face I'm pretty sure they reported back that I was helping the Winter Soldier and that would end any alliance I had with them."

"Does anyone at all know about this safe house?" he questioned and she shook her head no. "Can I trust you?"

"As much as I can trust you." Raylee said calmly. She was happy that his softer side had seemed to be in control at the moment. "Did you get any sleep last night?" she asked and he shook his head. "Why?"

"I don't feel safe." He said glancing around the place. "I need to go somewhere but I don't want to leave you here."

"I won't go anywhere… I have nowhere to go but here."

"I can't leave you alone knowing they will kill you if they find you." He said shaking his head. "If your knee can take it we can be back before night fall."

"Ok." Raylee said.

He gave her time to shower and change into some clean clothes. When she came back out she noticed their small arsenal of weapons was down to two guns only left on the table. He picked them up and handed them to her explaining that he felt safer with the weapons but didn't want to leave her completely unarmed. Raylee sucked in a deep breath then slowly released it trying to calm her own anger with him. She wanted to yell at him about her own fear of not being safe especially considering she was following him a known HYDRA assassin to an unknown location that very well could be a trap for her.

He could sense her anger and he got worried she wouldn't leave with him. "Where we are going could possibly be dangerous and I need you to trust me."

"At least tell me where we are going then maybe I can trust you a little."

"A HYDRA hideout." He said and she began instantly shaking her head no and kept repeating that she wasn't going with him. "Raylee." He said softly, the sound of him saying her name aloud for the first time silenced her. Raylee looked up at him and he could see the fear in her eyes. "I have things I need there and I will keep you safe."

"Give me a name… if I'm going to trust you I need to know what to call you, I refuse to keep referring to you as the Winter Soldier."

"Barnes… just call me Barnes." He said hesitantly and she let out a small chuckle causing him to tense up. "What?!" he snapped at her.

"I'm sorry… I just couldn't believe the irony in that." She said shaking her head at how easy he got upset with her. "Two years ago I had used that name as an alias a couple of times… that was all."

"Why did you choose that name?" he asked in a soft curious voice.

"It was the first name that came to my mind at that time… why did you choose it?"

"Same thing." He said walking over to the door and looked out the peephole, he didn't want to tell her that it might have been his real name because he wasn't sure himself. "We should go before the sun comes all the way up."

Barnes grabbed the coat he had on the day before and slid it on to cover his arm. Raylee signaled for him to wait one minute as she ran over to her closest and pull out a baseball hat and handed it to him with a pair of sunglasses. As he put them on she pulled her hood up and slid her own sunglasses on then they left the apartment. Raylee noticed how nervous he was walking and her knee was still bothering her a little so she agreed to let him steal a car when they got a good distance from the apartment.

When they got about a mile away from the compound they ditched the car and he got rid of the hat, sunglasses and coat. Once he felt comfortable in his own clothes again they began the trek to the hideout. When they got there the place looked deserted from the outside but he didn't trust it anyways, he was stern with her when he told her not to leave his side unless she was told to do it by him. When she tried explaining that she was trained for stuff like this he glared at her so she just agreed with him.

They climbed over a fenced area and he led her over to a hidden door he uncovered. When they got in they both silently made their way down a maze of tunnels, if he had not been there with her Raylee knew she would have gotten lost in there on her own. Barnes came to a door and he quickly went into the room and cleared it then had her come in behind him. Raylee stood there watching the door as he packed a duffle bag with clothes and somethings he gotten out a drawer then he slipped a leather coat on.

"Take that sweater off." He said turning to face her.

Raylee wasn't sure why he said that but she did what he asked just to keep from fighting with him. Barnes walked up to her with a holster like he had on and handed to her. She tried to strap it on but it was too big and he had to adjust it to fit her. Once she had it on he went into another drawer and pulled out two more guns and placed them in the holster she had put on. Then he handed her the sweater back and they were making their way down the tunnels again. Raylee didn't understand why they didn't go back the way they came until he stopped in a vault like room. After he grabbed something and placed it in the bag she watched as he stood there staring at a chair that was connected to some kind of machine contraption.

"What is that?" Raylee asked as she came to a stop next to him but he didn't say a word he just stood there staring at it. She noticed his breathing had picked up a bit and the cold demeanor he had the day before was slowly creeping back into him as he balled his hands into two tight fists. "Barnes what is going on… what is that?" she asked nervously as she took a few steps away from him.

Her movement caused his head to snap in her direction and the coldness in his eyes had her scared. The eyes that were staring at her were the same pair that looked down at her before he brought his fist back then launched it into her jaw. Within a blink of an eye there was a gun in his hand aimed towards her causing her to take few more steps back. He instantly pulled the trigger and Raylee squeezed her eyes shut waiting for the impact of the bullet.

"Open your eyes." He snapped at her and her eyes shot open. "We have to go."

Raylee looked at him in shock then glanced behind herself to see a dead agent laying on the ground. "I thought…" she trailed off not sure how to tell him that she thought he was going to kill her in that moment.

"I know what you thought… we need to go, there will be more agents." He said grabbing her arm and pulled her out the vault.

Just as they cleared the door he told her to run as he tossed a grenade back into the vault and it exploded behind them. He wanted to make sure that they could never use that machine on him again so he knew he had to destroy it before leaving and then had to find any others that may exist. Raylee didn't have time to question anything that had just happened because when they exited the building there were more agents that started firing at them. Raylee and Barnes took cover behind a dumpster and he glanced at her to see she had two guns in her hands and was ready to fight back.

After a few moments Barnes signaled which way they were to run then they both quickly got up and began shooting back as they ran for the fence again. Raylee could hear the clinking of metal and knew that he had to have been deflecting bullets. When they reached the fence Raylee reached up to start climbing but she felt a bullet graze her arm. She grunted as she yanked her arm back down, Barnes glanced at her then at the fence. When he moved to the fence himself Raylee covered him and continued to exchange gun fire with the agents. Barnes ripped an opening into the fence and pulled her through it with himself and they began running again.

Raylee had no idea where they were, the exit they took and the fence they went through was nowhere near where they came in. She glanced at him for direction and he pointed where to go so she nodded and kept running. Suddenly she heard shots being fired again and when glanced over to see if they should return it he was gone. Raylee came to a stop and surveyed her surrounds but there was no sign of him. When the shots sounded closer Raylee took off running again.

The Winter Soldier didn't want to part from her but knew he had to in order to keep her safe like he told her he would. Once he pointed what direction he wanted her to run in and she turned away from him he doubled back towards the compound to eliminate anyone that could follow them. He was just hoping that when she realized he was gone she would keep running and not come back looking for him.

Raylee came to a stop again and was breathing heavy as she glanced around. This was her chance to get away from him and try to contact Clint in hopes of him believing her. Raylee took several deep breaths to calm her breathing then checked to see how much ammo she had left. Two of her guns were down to one shot each but the two he gave her were fully loaded. Raylee looked back at the way she ran from shook her head and began running again. It wasn't long before someone fired a shot at her and she hid behind a wall for cover. When she glanced around it to see where the shots came from another shot rang out giving her idea where to shoot back.

She quickly fired back two shots and when she took cover again she almost screamed but a metal hand clamped down on mouth as Barnes glared at her. "You were not supposed to come back!" he snapped at her in a cold voice that sent chills down her spine as he removed his hand.

"I'm a trained agent… I don't run away." She growled at him in a low voice.

His hand quickly lifted up and he pulled the trigger of his gun successfully scaring her again. "That was the last one, let's go!" he snapped walking away.

Raylee glanced behind her to see he had killed the agent she was exchanging gun fire with. The silent treatment was back in effect and he didn't say a word to her while they walked. They kept hidden in the shadows as quite a few cop cars went racing down the road. She wasn't sure how long they had been walking but the sun was going down and her stomach began to growl. Raylee couldn't remember the last time she had anything to eat all she knew was that it had been sometime the day before. He glanced over at her when her stomach growled a second time when they reached a parking lot.

The first car he saw was the second stolen vehicle that was taken by him. They ditched the car a couple of miles away from the apartment and walked back to it. By the time they were back inside the sun had gone down completely. After removing the sweater and holster Raylee rummaged through the cabinets for something to eat while he went through his bag. When she found a few things that seemed good enough to eat she turned to see he was on some kind of tablet device. He had once again placed himself in a defensive position, his back was to the wall with a window to his right. The guns were in front of him and so was the front door and the bathroom door was to his left.

"Are you hungry?" she asked and he just shook his head no, not bothering to look up from the device he had. "You don't eat, you barely talk, you don't sleep and apparently pain isn't a big deal for you considering your arm was broke yesterday."

Barnes looked up from the tablet and his cold blue eyes locked on her brown ones. "I'll eat when I'm hungry, I talk when I need to talk, I'll sleep when I feel safe and pain must not bother you either." He said pointing his finger at her arm then looked back down.

Raylee glanced down at her arm and noticed the dry blood on her shirt from where the bullet had grazed her arm. She had completely forgotten about that with the adrenaline rush she had from the day's events. Raylee walked over to the dresser to get another shirt not noticing his eyes following her movements. Barnes stood staring at the bathroom door until she came out again and walked back to the food she had found.

Raylee picked some of the food up and a couple of bottles of water then walked over towards him. "If you're not going to sleep then you need to at least eat. If you don't eat you won't have the strength to defend yourself." She said placing some food and a bottle of water on the table in front of him.

His eyes looked up from the device to her. "Why did you think I was going to shoot you?" he asked ignoring what she had said to him.

"The same reason you won't sleep." Raylee wanted the soft voice he had earlier to come back, not the cold one that was in control right now.

"You don't feel safe?" he asked and she shook head no. "I told you I wasn't going to kill you."

"You're a trainer killer that I only had one encounter with other than now. Everyone said you were a ghost story and I now know that isn't true." Raylee said as she took a few steps back and he noticed the space she put between them. "You don't look a day over thirty but yet the stories about you go back as far as fifty years."

"How long have you been an agent for SHIELD?"

"Seven almost eight years." Raylee said as she shifted her weight to ease the pressure off her sore knee.

"You should sit." He said nodding towards the couch. "Your knee is bothering you."

"What did HYDRA do to you?" Raylee asked as she walked to the couch and sat down. "What was that machine you destroyed?"

"I don't remember everything." He said looking over at her as he placed the device down on the table and grabbed the water she placed there.

"Why?" Raylee asked in shock. "Did they do something to you?"

"I get these flashes when I close my eyes." He said then took a drink from the water before continuing. "The last memory that came back was them wanting to prep me but couldn't because I had been awake too long."

"Awake? Prep you… prep you for what?" She asked still sounding in shock, she knew she should stop asking questions but she wanted to get all she could while he did talk. It was only a matter of time before the silent treatment would return again.

Rather than answer her questions anymore he picked the device up and held it out to her. Raylee looked from his eyes to the device and hesitated a moment before grabbing it from him. He had been looking through whatever was on there since they returned and now he was letting her see it. She looked down at it to see it had been some kind of file for HYDRA, Barnes had stolen a vital piece of equipment. On a normal day for her she would have been excited to dig through it for any Intel that could be found but this wasn't just any day. The tab he had open held the name Asset and Raylee knew that was him.

There wasn't any personal information about him in it but it did list the times he was awake and the length of time. She felt confused and didn't understand what it meant by awake but she did notice that each time he was awake was for a mission HYDRA needed him on. Clicking on the most recently closed mission she saw her uncle's picture and the word deceased across it. After taking a couple of deep breaths she closed it and went to the one before it which happened to be the scientist she was protecting and his photo had been the same as Nick's. After reading his report she read the doctor's reports and it said they had wiped his memory clean and froze him until he was needed again.

"You don't remember almost killing me because they wiped it from your memory." She said looking up at him and his face held no emotion on it. "Why are you showing me this?"

"I need you to trust me so I can trust you." He said softly and Raylee noticed his softer side was slowly coming back. "You said I killed your uncle."

Raylee sucked in a deep breath when she realized he remembered her saying that to him. The list of people that knew the truth about her and Fury being related was still sitting at three. Phil Coulson, Bruce Banner, Alexander Pierce and now he was about to become number four. "He was your last completed mission." She said handing him the device back.

Barnes looked down at the device but the open file was of a scientist so he read that first and in the report he told them the job was done and as he was told he had subdue the female agent but she was still alive when he left. He sucked in a deep breath as he glanced up at her but she was looking down at her hands. He looked back at the device and closed that file and went to his last completed mission. This time when his eyes shot back up at her she was looking directly at him.

"The director of SHIELD was your uncle?" he asked, Raylee noticed the coldness in his voice came back.

"Was… you killed him." Raylee said in her own cold voice. "You want me to trust you but I find it hard to do… you killed my uncle, attacked me and I could never forget about the bullet you put through my partner so you could kill the man she was protecting." Raylee snapped in a low voice. "We will never trust each other so I think when this place is a lost to us we need to just part ways, I can find a way to make it on my own and I know you'll be just fine without the add body weight weighing you down."


	13. Chapter 13

Raylee and Barnes didn't bother talking the rest of the night after what she had said to him. The silent treatment was back to its full effect and once she couldn't handle just sitting there in silence staring at him anymore so she laid across the couch and fell asleep. Knowing that he wasn't going to sleep any time soon she didn't offer to pull out the sleeper that would have had enough room for the both of them. Raylee wasn't even sure if she wanted him in the bed next to her anyways. Sometime during the middle of the night Raylee heard groans and her eyes quickly opened. She saw him sitting on the floor with his back against the wall but his eyes were closed and he seemed to be having some kind of bad dream.

Quietly sliding out off the couch she slowly walked over to him and squatted down next to him. Just as she was about to touch his shoulder to wake him things moved so quick. Raylee didn't have enough time to react to his movement and she was suddenly laying on the ground fighting to breathe. Barnes who was leaning over her looking down had his human hand wrapped tightly around her throat and was squeezing. Raylee was trying to get him off her as she kicked at his body and clawed at his arm. His eyes had seemed so empty and distant like he wasn't even in the same room as her. Raylee didn't know if he was Barnes the ally she thought she gained or the Winter Soldier that wanted her dead.

The only thing she did know was that she wasn't going to last much longer to know if he didn't snap out of whatever was going on in his head. Just as she was about to give up and succumb to her fate his hand released her and he quickly stood up and backed away. He stood there watching as she gasped for air to enter her deprived lungs again. He had no idea what had gotten into him and when his mind had cleared he saw her terrified eyes looking up at him. Raylee rolled to her side and began coughing hard as she tried to breathe normal again. The rush of air into her lungs hurt just as much as it did leaving.

When she saw him move towards her Raylee quickly scooted herself across the floor away from him out of fear he was going to hurt her again. Barnes stopped moving and put his hands up to show he wasn't trying anything. She sat there holding her throat breathing heavily still as he slowly walked to the bottle of water he had on the table and picked it up then slowly walked closer to her and held the bottle out for her.

Raylee reached out with a shaky hand and once she had a grip on the bottle he quickly let it go and backed away giving her some space hoping she would relax at least a little. Her heart was racing and her body was shaking uncontrollably, the look he had scared her more right now than it did when he attacked her a year ago. He was more mentally unstable than she had realized and now she was regretting the fact that she didn't run from him when she had the chance. Raylee glanced up at the door that was now just a few feet from her and slowly looked back at Barnes wondering if he would chase her out the door if she tried to run from him.

"It's not safe." He said knowing what was going through her mind when she looked at the door.

"Being in here with you is?" she asked in a low raspy voice and for the first time she saw an emotion come to his face. He looked upset and she got confused. "You just tried to kill me."

"I was…" he trailed off not being sure how to explain what had happened. "I felt it, it felt so real… all the pain." He said in broken sentences as he shook his head and she was confused by what he was trying to say to her. "I heard the movement and thought…"

"You thought I was going to hurt you." Raylee said and he just shrugged his shoulders. "What felt real, what were you dreaming about?"

"The vault." He said and her eyes went wide. "They used that machine on me, they took my memories from me with it. I can't explain how it worked or the pain it caused. Raylee I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

She nodded her head but didn't ask or say anything else to him. He gave one slight nod as he sat against the wall on the other side of the room from her. They left the space of the entire studio apartment between them, he did it so she would feel safe and she did it out of fear. Whenever she would start to doze off Raylee would quickly sit up and he felt bad she was afraid to fall asleep again. He knew what it was like not feeling safe and he didn't want her to feel that way. After about three hours of watching her fight her sleep he stood up on his feet grabbed the blanket and walked over dropping it on her.

"Get some sleep." He said walking back to the other side and sat down.

Raylee still tried to stay awake but ended up giving in to her heavy eyelids and fell asleep again. The next time she was woken up he was squatted down in front of her with his hand over her mouth causing her to let out a muffled scream. He signaled for her to stay quiet as he pointed at the door that was just a few feet from where they were. Raylee nodded her head and he moved his hand then pulled the gun out of his holster and handed it to her. He showed her his own gun just a there was a knock at the door and she jumped, the neighbor's voice was the next thing they both heard.

"Ms. Barnes are you in there?" the guy asked and Barnes looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she just shrugged at him as she realized she didn't tell him that the studio was under the name Stephanie Barnes.

When she didn't answer a second voice was heard. "I swear I heard some noise in there last night… we should call the police, it sounded like someone was struggling in there."

The both of them quickly stood up, Raylee signaled for him to stay quiet and to hide behind the door as she placed the gun in the back of her pants waistband. He shook his head no while glaring at her but she ignored him causing him to quickly move. "Hey neighbor." Raylee said in a cheerful voice as she opened the door.

"The apartment had been empty for so long I didn't realize you were back." He said smiling at her.

"I got back into town last night." She said smiling at him.

"I told you I heard something in there last night." The other guy said to his friend. "With all that crap going on we have to be careful."

"I must have been louder than I thought, I'm sorry." Raylee said with a small smile.

"Oh that's no problem." The guy said to her.

The two men start rambling about the other just moving in and some other stuff she wasn't paying attention to because she could feel Barnes putting pressure on the door to get her to close it. She tried to push it back towards him but his strength was too much for her so she had to find a way out of their rambling conversation before Barnes snapped her door in half. Raylee blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"I'm sorry gentlemen but I'm running late." She said glancing over her shoulder at the clock then back at them. "I was supposed to meet my boyfriend twenty minutes ago and I over slept."

"Oh… you have a boyfriend." One of them said.

"Yeah, I really should get going because he gets extremely concern if I'm late."

"Ok… it was nice seeing you again Ms. Barnes." He said sticking his hand out to her as his eyes trailed down to her neck for a moment then back to her eyes. "I never did get your first name."

The pressure on the door began to become too much for her to handle. "It's Stephanie… I really got to go." She said shaking his hand quickly and stepped back as Barnes closed the door a little more roughly than he had intend. "What is your problem?" she growled at him in a low voice.

Barnes had been watching the guy through the small opening behind the door, he brought his hand up to slip her hair over her shoulder and she flinched from the action. He acted as if he didn't notice and side stepped so she could look in the mirror at the bruising he had left there from when he choked her. Raylee stood there looking at her reflection and could see a very defined handprint bruise around her neck. She brought her own hand up and traced the large bruise in shock, she knew the pressure he used last night was strong but she didn't expect for it to bruise like that. He himself didn't notice the bruise until it was too late and she had the door open.

"We need to get out of here for a while and monitor the place." He said walking away from her and she turned to look at him in shock. "Do you have some kind of safe or somewhere for the weapons that no one would find?"

"I actually have a spot to hide them but why are we leaving and leaving unarmed?"

"We need to see if your damn neighbors call the police and we won't be completely unarmed he said sheathing two knives a placing them to the side.

Raylee didn't argue with him she just nodded and walked to the kitchen. He followed behind her and watched as she squatted down and tapped a board on the floor causing it to slide out. When his eyes landed on the ammo and few guns in there he glared at her. "It's a personal stash and I wasn't going to give you every secret I had until I knew I had no choice." She said looking up at him.

Barnes shook his head and walked over to the weapons and began handing them to her as she placed them in the hidden compartment then she pulled out some cash she had in there. They both took turns taking a shower and when he came out dressed like he was going for a mission Raylee shook her head at him. She thanked god that she had decided to keep some men clothes on hand just in case Clint needed a place to lay low, so she pulled the jeans out and handed them to him hoping they fit. Not bothering to fight he changed again and she handed him a gray button up to go over the black shirt he already had on.

Raylee had on a simple outfit with a scarf wrapped around her neck to cover the bruise. They both slid on coats and she handed him another hat to put on. When they left the apartment Barnes slid his hands into the coat pockets to keep his metal hand out of sight. There was a café not far from the apartment so they walked to it and sat down at one of the outdoor tables.

Barnes sat facing the apartment and Raylee faced the opposite way so they could keep their eyes on everything around them. Neither of them spoke other than when they ordered their drinks. After sitting there for a couple of hours Raylee convinced him that they need to get some food for the apartment if they had planned on being there any longer. While at the store Raylee picked up a brace for her knee then they finally went back to the apartment.

Over the next few days Raylee and Barnes had done basically the same thing and it had looked like they were just about clear to move on. The both of them began to feel that they were getting way too comfortable and needed to move on before they let their guard down. In the morning after they sat at the café again for a little while he decided to venture a little further away to check things out. Raylee was surprised when they ended up in the center of DC, she had expected them to stay away from there and completely off the grid.

As they walked around he spotted the banner about the Captain America exhibit, he nudged her lightly with his elbow and nodded towards it. "You want to go in the Smithsonian?" she questioned sounding a bit shock and he nodded. "Do you have any idea how many cameras are in there? We could easily be spotted in there if anyone gets a hold of the video feed."

"I have to see something." He said walking towards it and she quickly followed him.

They both knew he wouldn't get past the metal detector at the door with his arm so she caused a small commotion near the guards and he slipped in behind them. She apologized a few times before paying for herself and met up with him further inside. They walked towards the exhibit and she noticed him tense up a little. She had done this with Steve when he wanted to come there and the memories of his stories started to come back to her. At first Steve was quiet and stood there silently reading until she got him to open up to her, the memory brought a small smile to her face. Raylee thought it was best to start in the theater room knowing it explained more but he had stopped walking.

She turned to see what he was looking at and her eyes went wide when she saw his face on the memorial he was standing in front of. That's when she glanced around the area they were in a noticed his picture was on almost everything standing right next to Steve. She knew he had looked familiar when she saw his whole face but couldn't figure out why and now she knew why, she had seen his face here while with Steve. The Winter Soldier was James Buchanan Barnes… Bucky, Steve's best friend that he thought he lost in the war all those years ago. Things began to make sense to her the more she thought about it, Steve had told her that Hydra had experimented on him. The ghost stories for the last fifty years where about a man that didn't seem to age. His strength was like Steve's, his ability to heal quickly, not needing much sleep and his speed was all like Steve.

Raylee was at a loss for words for a moment, it was so hard to believe but there was no denying it. "You knew." She said in a low voice and he slowly turned his head to look at her. "You knew who you were and you didn't tell me."

Raylee didn't give him a chance to respond she turned away from him and walked to the theater where she sat by herself in the back. The video was playing but she didn't pay any attention to it this time around. She was mad at herself for not realizing who he was especially after hearing all the stories Steve told her about Bucky. She was trained to pay attention to all details and she let the most important thing slip pass her like it didn't matter. When she saw him enter the theater and glance around she got up to leave but he quickly stepped in front of her stopping her from leaving.

"I didn't know." He said in a low voice as he looked down at her. "The guy on the helicarrier… Captain whatever said something and I didn't know if it was true. I had to see it for myself."

"You're Bucky Barnes and you knew because you told me to call you Barnes." She growled at him as people started come in to see the next showing. "When I asked why you chose that name you lied to me."

Bucky glanced around and pulled his hat lower as he nudged Raylee back onto the bench and he sat down next to her. When she tried to get up he clamped his metal hand down on her thigh keeping her there. "I'm not that guy anymore… he died in nineteen forty five." He whispered to her as he kept his eyes on the screen.

His metal hand stood on her thigh keeping her in place as he silently watched the video. Raylee held onto the wrist of the metal hand knowing he couldn't even feel it. When she glanced over to her right she saw a kid sitting there with his eyes glue to the hand on her thigh so she adjusted her body to cover it and Bucky glanced at her. Raylee gave a slight nod towards the shock kid and he tensed causing her to tense when his metal hand flexed on her thigh.

"You break my leg I will scream." She growled in a low whisper and his hand instantly released her.

"We should leave." He whispered back and she nodded at him as they both stood up and he quickly put his hand back in the pocket to hide it again.

The kid watched as they walked away and Raylee smiled softly at him causing him to quickly look away. Raylee followed Bucky out of the Smithsonian but when they exited the building she went the opposite way then he did. It took him a few moments to realize she wasn't next to him, Bucky turned around only to see her quickly turning the corner. Shaking his head he decided to cut her off from another direction.

Raylee walked as quick as her legs could take her without actually running and bringing attention to herself. Once she was around the corner she glanced back to see if he was following her or not and was relieved that he wasn't there. She had to find a way to get in touch with Steve but first she needed find out if he was alive. Raylee headed for the library knowing there would be a computer there that she could use. She did know one person that would probably help her and Tony happened to be her only hope right now. When she saw that she wasn't very far from the building Raylee was suddenly yanked between two buildings and dragged down out of view of the street.

When he stopped he pushed her against the wall. "What the hell are you doing?" Bucky growled at her.

Raylee glanced around herself but with the shade of the buildings it was pretty dark. Not bothering to answer him Raylee tried to lift her leg in hopes of kneeing him but his metal hand caught her leg and held it up leaving her helpless. She quickly grabbed his other arm to steady herself from falling, he didn't pull it away and she was surprisingly grateful.

"Where were you headed?" he asked as he gave her leg a squeeze causing her to wince.

"The library." She snapped at him as she tried to pull her leg away from him.

"For what?"

"To find out if you killed Steve."

"The last time I saw your friend he was alive." He said in a calmer voice and watched as she showed signs of relief. "I pulled him to safety right before I ran into you."

"Why?" she asked in a shock voice.

"We need to go." Bucky said as he glanced around to see a man watching them from the sidewalk.

His body tensed and slowly let her leg go getting ready to fight if he needed to. Raylee could tell the man wasn't an agent but was just probably a citizen concerned with the position they were in. Not wanting Bucky to kill an innocent man she had to think quickly. Taking one more glance at the man that was watching them she lifted herself up on her toes and prayed Bucky didn't kill her for doing this. She took a hold of his face with both of her hands. When he looked at her surprised Raylee crashed her lips into his, she knew the man would get uncomfortable and leave. Both of Bucky's fists slammed into the wall behind her, the metal one making a crunching sound upon contact.


	14. Chapter 14

When Raylee's lips made contact with Bucky's something felt so right about it, the feel of his growing beard under her hands… the surprisingly softness of his lips. It almost felt like he started to kiss her back but he suddenly pulled away like a light bulb went off in his head. He glanced back towards where the man had been but he was gone already. Bucky looked back at her as he pushed off the wall putting space between them. The shock was still there but she could see the anger creeping into his face. Raylee's heart began to race and she was now beginning to regret her move and almost wished she let him kill the nosy man.

"Don't ever do that again!" he snapped at her.

"I did it to keep you from killing an innocent man." She said shaking her head at him. "Unlike you I actually have a conscious about the things I do."

"Oh do you?" he asked sarcastically and the coldness in his voice scared her. "We're gonna have to see about that."

"What do you mean by that?"

"How many kills do you have?" he snapped at her.

"What does that have to do with this?" she asked sounding confused.

"How many?" he asked again but more sternly this time.

"Ten mission kills, I don't count the HYDRA kills because they tried to kill me."

"Of the ten how many did your precious conscious keep you up over?"

"One." Raylee said… it could have possibly not have been her kill but Patrick's death did hurt and it was her fault.

"You are no different than I am." He snapped at her. "You may have been called an agent or a spy but you were an assassin for SHIELD."

Bucky quickly turned away from her and headed towards the street again. The look in his eyes and the coldness of his voice made her realize that Bucky had given into the Winter Soldier persona again. The only ally she had left was gone and her enemy was back in his place. Raylee quickly ran after him hoping to keep him from doing anything stupid. When she caught up to him she grabbed his arm and he stopped moving, glaring at her over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?"

"I think it's time we go our own way." He snapped at her as he yanked his arm away.

"I can't let you leave like this." She said shaking her head.

"You get in my way and I will kill you."

"Bucky…" that was all she got out when he slammed her against the wall by her throat, Raylee gasped in shock as she grabbed his wrist.

"I told you I am not him." He growled at her. "Do not call me that!"

Raylee could feel the strength in his arm but he was only applying enough pressure to keep her from moving. "Fine… you can get your things and leave… Winter Soldier."

Bucky nodded his head and stepped back from her letting his hand drop to his side. Neither of them said a word to each other as they went back to the apartment. Once they were back at the apartment Raylee stood by the kitchen counter watching as he packed his things. When he was just about done Raylee walked over to the spot they had the weapons hidden and opened it up. She pulled out all the guns he had and placed them on the counter along with half the ammo that was in there. Bucky walked over to the guns and began arming himself when he was done he walked to the door and turned to look at her one last time before walking out.

Raylee stood there looking around the apartment that now felt too big for her even though it was just a studio. The place wasn't burned yet so she knew she could stay at least a few more days before moving on. After taking a few slow deep breaths Raylee leaned back down and pulled out the transmitter she had that would signal her location to Clint and Natasha. Looking down at the on button she wasn't sure if they would understand what she had done or why she did it. Feeling like she had already proven to Clint about her not deserving to be an agent she placed it down on the counter and walked away.

Raylee went to sleep extra early that night resulting in her being awake well before the sun was even up. She sat there staring at the transmitter for a few hours before getting up and deciding to get out for a while. Raylee walked down to the café she had frequent with Bucky and sat down at their usual table. As she sat there she caught herself wondering if he was ok and if he found shelter for the night. That's when reality hit her, she was alone. He may have been the enemy at one point but for their short time together he was someone she could rely on.

Raylee knew she slipped into the cracks and was falling into the black, the betrayal to SHIELD by helping the Winter Soldier get away was something they would never forgive. She had aided in the hunt for Natasha and Steve when she was told they had turned on SHIELD, Raylee was pretty sure neither of them wanted anything to do with her. Clint would probably side with them considering they never spoke again since she came to DC and she helped the man that killed Fury. With Fury being dead there went any hope in getting anyone to understand. He would have been the only one that would have helped her. She thought about Tony again but was scared to find out if her closest friend would turn on her like the rest.

Raylee was brought from her thoughts when the waitress spoke to her. "Will your boyfriend be joining you this morning?" she asked with a smile on her face.

Raylee looked up at her and until that moment it had never dawned on her what everyone else had thought when the two of them came there every morning. "No… I'll just have one coffee." She said smiling back at her. Raylee sat there drinking her coffee slowly, she tried to keep her mind set on watching her surroundings but it kept trailing off to Bucky.

Every mile Bucky put between him and Raylee had his stomach in knots, something felt wrong about leaving her alone. Another part of him was forcing distance between them because he didn't like the way he felt when he was near her. He felt the need to protect her but at the same time he felt like she was a threat to him. The double edge sword he felt like he was teetering on was going to cut him no matter which way he fell. Bucky was more lost and confused now than he was fighting the man that claimed to be his best friend. He was beginning to feel the conscious Raylee said he didn't have and Bucky didn't like it.

It had been a couple of weeks since Bucky and Raylee parted ways but she never left the apartment. No one had showed up there looking for her and she had kept a watchful eye on things around DC. To the best of her knowledge SHIELD no longer existed but she also knew that the government was trying to lure out all agents they could out of hiding. There was no mention of her in any of the reports she read so she decided to just stay put and lay low. The only thing that worried her was that HYDRA was still running at full force.

Once Raylee was done with her usual morning coffee she opted to just go back home instead of taking the usual scout around the area. Her life had almost felt normal and she was beginning to let her guard down. Raylee walked into her apartment and when she closed the door her eyes went wide as she felt a large boot kick her in the center of her gut causing her to fly backwards to the ground. Just as the man advanced on her Raylee quickly kicked both her legs up catching him in the chest. She pulled her gun out and was about to aim and shoot but it was kicked from her hand. That's when she realized he wasn't alone in the apartment, the second guy went to kick her head but she quickly rolled away from him.

Jumping to her feet to give herself a fighting chance Raylee began fighting with the second guy. The hits she was taking were painful body shots but she knew she couldn't give up. She had no idea who they were or why they were after her but she wasn't going to make it easy for them. Raylee was doing her best at fighting both men off but one grabbed and threw her into the mirror by the door causing the glass to shatter all around her some cutting her in the process. As she laid there breathing through the pain she felt one of the shards that was embedded into her side. One of the men advanced towards her lifting her off the ground by her hair with his gun drawn in the other hand. Raylee held onto his wrist with both her hands hoping to relieve some of the pressure from the hair pulling as she teetered on her toes.

The man that wasn't holding her finally spoke. "Cronan, O'Dell wants her alive." He said in a very thick Irish accent.

"He never said in one piece." Cronan said smirking at her. "The little bitch needs to learn her lesson."

"I will not go back to Ireland alive." Raylee said trying to free herself as they both laughed at her.

"You have no choice." The other guy said smacking her hard. "Tie her up then sedate her."

"My pleasure." Cronan said as he manhandled her.

Cronan threw her into the counter top banging her head off it and held her down just as a shot rang out hitting the other guy. Cronan quickly lifted Raylee up and shielded his body with hers as he squatted slightly to make sure there wasn't a clean shot of himself. Raylee was just as surprised as Cronan was, she had no idea who killed the other guy and she was scared whoever it was had no problem killing her either. Raylee noticed the shot came through the wall that was adjoined to the bathroom when she looked around. Cronan noticed the same thing and turned to face in that direction with Raylee between him and the shooter.

"Who is here?" he snapped squeezing his arm tighter around her throat.

"I don't know." Raylee choked out as she tried to pull his arm away so she could breathe.

"You don't come out I will kill her." He yelled towards the bathroom. Raylee was even more shocked when she watched Bucky come out slowly with a gun raised and aimed at Cronan, he had his mask and goggles covering his face and his coat covered the metal arm with a glove over his hand. "I don't know who you are but Phillip O'Dell wants her alive and I'm not leaving here without her."

"No one said you were leaving." Bucky said in a calm but cold voice that came out slightly muffled.

"Lower your gun or I will kill her." He said squeezing her throat to show he was serious and she began gasping for air.

Bucky slowly lower the gun and when Cronan fire a shot at Bucky his eyes went wide when Bucky deflected the bullet with his arm and quickly fired a shot back hitting the guy dead center of the forehead. The guy fell back pulling Raylee down with him. She began coughing for air when Bucky quickly moved to her and pulled her away from the dead body. Not realizing what she was doing Raylee clung to him as she tried to breathe normal again and he reached up to remove the goggles and mask.

"Are you ok?" he asked looking down at her and she shook her head no. "What's wrong?"

"My side." She said pulling away from him.

"Were you shot?" Bucky asked as he looked her up and down and that's when he noticed a nice size chunk of glass stuck in her side, it wasn't deep enough to be big problem but it was big enough to cause a problem if it wasn't taken out. He glanced around the room and noticed the mirror broke and blood around the area also. "Raylee this is going to hurt."

"What is?" she asked looking up at him but he didn't say anything as he quickly held her still and yanked the glass out.

She screamed causing him to pull her back against him then he covered her mouth. "We need to leave." He said glancing down at her and she nodded at him as she was breathing heavily. "Get some clothes and anything else you need that can fit in one bag, I will get the weapons."

Raylee didn't question him even though about hundred questions were running through her mind. When she got done he was already standing near the bathroom. Raylee glanced over to where she had the transmitter sitting on the counter but it was gone. She looked back at him and saw the transmitter in his metal hand.

"Is this needed?" he asked and without hesitation she shook her head no and he smashed it with one squeeze. "Let's go."

"Why through the bathroom?"

"I'm sure someone heard the shots and the battle you had in here." When she looked out the open window he grabbed the bag she had and tossed it over to the roof top that was just a tad bit lower then where they stood. "Can you make that jump?"

"Yeah." She said climbing out the window and stepped onto the tiny ledge hoping to have some kind of leverage to leap across.

Raylee sucked in a deep breath and leapt over to the other roof just barely making it as she rolled. Raylee screamed in pain as she landed on her arm then her back. Before she was even able to climb to her feet he landed with a roll and was quickly back on his feet next to her. Knowing she wasn't going to be able to make the next jump he opted to go down through the building. They ran through the alley ways until he came across a parking lot where he stole a car to get them further away.

Bucky pulled into the abandon warehouse he had been using for the last few days. He jumped out the car and signaled for her to drive it in when he opened the large door. Raylee climbed over to the driver seat and did what he said and pulled in enough so he could close it again. When she got out the car he noticed the blood that was soaking her shirt in several spots.

"You're still bleeding." He said walking towards her.

"I grabbed a first aid kit but I can't do this all on my own." She said looking at him and he nodded. "I could stitch and bandage the larger wound but getting the glass out of my arm and back isn't going to be easy for me.

"I got it." He said holding his hand out to her.

Raylee placed the bag down on the hood of the car and pulled out the kit then handed it to him. She then turned away and slowly removed her shirt using it to cover her chest. He sucked in a deep breath and looked down to open the kit knowing he needed to avert his eyes to something other than her bare skin. After a couple of more deep breaths he guided Raylee over to sit down as he squatted down behind her. He had noticed a few smaller shards of glass in her back so he decided to remove them first. She did her best at staying still and not crying out.

When all the glass was out of her back and arm she stood up and turned to face him giving him a better view of the wound on her side. The first thing he noticed besides the blood was an older scar that was about five inches higher. From the looks of it he knew it was a rather large knife that left that kind of scar behind. He quickly stitched and covered the much smaller wound then looked up to see her looking down at him.

"How did you know I was in trouble?" she asked softly.

"I didn't." he said shaking his head as he stood up and stepped back a few feet. "I needed to check and see if you moved on yet. When I went to the apartment I heard the fighting so I went back out and came in through the bathroom window. The mirror you had hanging near that door made seeing into the room much easier for me."

"I had to make sure I could see everything no matter where I was standing." Raylee said softly. "That was the reason for all the mirrors."

"When the guy came into view I knew I had the shot so I took it but the other guy moved too quick and my second shot would have hit you if I didn't hesitate."

"I thought you were gone."

"I was but what I want to know is why you were still there?" he asked and she shrugged her shoulders. "Why the hell didn't you leave? I should have found that place empty."

"I had nowhere to go and I thought that because it had been so long and no one was looking for me, it was safe."

"You're smarter than that you should have left." He said shaking his head.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Neither of them realized as they spoke they were slowly gravitating towards each other. Raylee's heart rate picked up when she did finally noticed how close he was. Gripping the shirt to her chest just a bit tighter when he took a couple more steps closer, leaving about a foot between them. Bucky looked down at her as he took slow even breaths not showing how she made him feel inside.

"You said someone else did this." He said as he reached up towards her face tracing his own finger across the scar and felt a small shiver run through her as she nodded at him. "Was it the same person that did this?" he asked as his hand dropped down and traced the scar that Clint left behind when he stabbed her.

"Yes." She said keeping her eyes locked on his blue eyes.

"Is this person dead?"

"It's complicated."

"No it's not… is the person dead or not?" he asked and Raylee broke eye contact with him when she turned her head away. Bucky didn't want to lose the contact with her so he used his metal hand to turn her face back. "Why is this person still alive?"

"Because it was one of my friends." Raylee said trying to turn away but he wouldn't let her. "I couldn't kill him. He was under some kind of mind control and I didn't want to hurt him." He shook his head at her and she quickly got mad. "I know it wasn't smart and I didn't do what I was trained to do… I was pathetic and weak and my precious conscious got in the way." She snapped at him as she smacked his hand away from her side and grabbed onto the metal wrist.

Neither of them realized she had dropped the shirt and now stood there in just her bra and jeans. "I didn't say that." He snapped at her as he yanked his wrist from her hold. "I could have killed Steve, I could have let him drown when he fell but I didn't. That doesn't make me pathetic and weak."

Just as she was about to open her mouth and say something he crashed his lips into hers. Raylee froze for a moment at the contact but then her hormones took over as she kissed him back. Bucky pulled her body against his as the kiss heated up. Raylee wrapped her arms around his neck and his hands trailed down her body, the cold metal of his left hand and the warmth of his right hand both leaving a trail of goosebumps behind. He lifted her off her feet and Raylee wrapped her legs around his waist.

This was a feeling he has not had for as long as he could remember and controlling himself was beginning to become too hard. The feel of her soft lips against his, the feel of her body tight against his own was driving him wild. He walked himself forward until her back slammed against the wall with a bit more force then he had intended. Raylee winced from the contact but didn't want to stop, she kissed him back even harder. Having the support from Bucky's strong arms she loosened her grip around his neck as he broke the kiss and began trailing kisses down along her jaw to her neck. Raylee's hands slowly slid down his torso as a small moan escaped her lips, her hands came back up his body but this time under his shirt, she wanted to feel his warm skin against her own.

When her right hand made contact with the scarred skin of his left shoulder he quickly pulled their bodies apart as he put her back down on her feet. Raylee looked at him in shock as he turned and walked away leaving her standing there breathing heavily. She watched him in shock as he stopped long enough to put his metal fist through the stolen car's window. Raylee had no idea what had just happened and why he reacted that way to her if he had kissed her first this time.


End file.
